After seeing the world’s biggest lizards at Komodo National Park we could no longer be satisfied with average sized animal species.  Conveniently, the Island right next to Komodo is Sumbawa, home to a tourist industry built around its resident whale sharks.  

Whale. Sharks. The largest fish on the planet.  Acceptable.

We arranged with a local tour company to visit these creatures, but our guide had engine trouble the morning he was to pick us up.  He called in a favor with some local fishermen to pick us up instead. 

This last minute change wasn’t made clear to us at the time, so from our perspective the tour got off to an unusual start.  

Two men arrived at the anchorage at the arranged pick-up time, 6am.  They had lots of smiles and zero english.   Their small boat didn’t seem optimizated for carrying passengere, as we all got soaked by waves on the short journey out to a larger fishing vessel.  And why are they taking us to a fishing vessel?

The larger craft was an amazing contraption of wood and wire, with miles of rigging supporting rudimentary pontoons.  We believe it’s used for shrimping.  It had a crew of 6 or 8 men, again no english speakers.  

Our tour description had promised a breakfast en route to the sharks.  One of the crew gestured that we should climb to the upper deck, but strangely there was no obvious means of doing so.  These guys scamper around their boat like spidermen, with no need for handrails or ‘stairs’.

We awkwardly made our way to the upper deck using random footholds and grasping cables to balance.  Instead of breakfast the table there was loaded with empty beer bottles and cigarette butts.  

This all seemed like a very strange tourist operation, but the crew were very friendly, if a little bemused themselves.

Our tour/fishboat fired up it’s engine and made it’s way a few miles to a raft of other boats all tied together, presumably the site of the whale sharks.

Here arose a second mystery.  Why would whale sharks hang here?  Near all these people and boats is the last place I’d expect to find a gentle giant from the deep.  Are they being summoned by a large underwater horn, like the kraken?  

We weren’t to get any answers from our guides given the language barrier.  One of the crewmen ferried us over to the raft of boats.  Removing his cigarette, he gestured to the water and said: “Go in.”

So… No safety orientation speech?  We’ll just leap into this frothing chaos of tourists, boats, and the worlds largest sharks?

And so we did.  It wasn’t the most natural wildlife encounter, but it was pretty amazing to see these behemoths.

The tour operators set up a waterfall of plankton which attracts the sharks and keeps their attention as dozens of tourists circle them taking selfies.

After an hour or so our actual tour guide showed up, speaking English and delivering the promised breakfast of fruit, bread and nutella.  He explained about his engine trouble and the puzzle pieces fell into place.

We felt pretty lucky to have recieved the fishboat version of the tour, to get a small look into the lives of these men.

Be sure to tune in next week as the Mandolyn crew tracks down the world’s largest… seagull.