12 February 2017
Have your expectations ever been so high that the event you’re anxiously awaiting pales in comparison to your over-hyped imagination? I feared I had set myself up for just such a letdown. It wouldn’t have been the first time.
I’d been aching to dive Raja Ampat ever since I’d first heard of this marine oasis; an archipelago in West Papua, Indonesia known as the most biodiverse marine region in the world. A marine biologist’s dream. I’d looked forward to the experience for so long, that by the time I was actually on my way to the islands, I feared they couldn’t possibly live up to my expectations.
The boat ride out to the islands quickly quelled my anxiety. The chartered fast boat out to Kri Island, where I would be spending the next week, seated approximately twenty people. A mix of avid divers and world travelers of all ages, from a variety of countries and backgrounds, all eager to reach the island we would call home for the week (or weeks) to come. About an hour into the ride, the boat slowed, and shouts could be heard from the crew on the top deck. I was seated at the front of the cabin next to the captain, surrounded on all sides by windows, but they were clouded by salt and sea spray. I squinted ahead to try and see what had caused the sudden crawl. Driftwood and debris littered the water before us, explaining the earlier shouts from the crew. But that wasn’t all…
“Dolphins,” my neighbor seated next to me pointed.
“What?!” I jumped up in my seat, my level of excitement skyrocketing.
I opened up the window to my left and stuck my head out to get a better view. Sure enough, we were surrounded by what appeared to be hundreds of spinner dolphins. Dorsal fins broke the horizon on all sides, quickly disappearing below the surface only to be replaced by more. I was now practically hanging out the window, much to the amusement of my fellow passengers. We slowed to a crawl, both to dodge driftwood and avoid racing headlong into the pod that now surrounded us. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, they were gone.
I sat back down in my seat.
“If this is any indication of what the week to come is going to be like…” I mused aloud.
“This is a pretty fair representation,” my neighbor replied.
This was his second time to the region in the last couple of months. He regaled me with fantastic tales of diving the islands, and the variety of marine life he’d seen on his last visit. He was clearly hooked, and was sure I soon would be too.
We swapped life stories while the boat sped along, and before long talked of everything from politics to the importance of marine conservation and fisheries management. We were in the midst of an impassioned conversation when we heard more excited shouting from the crew. I stuck my head back outside the window.
“What are they,” someone from the back questioned, “more dolphins?”
I was on it this time, “They’re pilot whales!”
I was on cloud nine.
I quite literally tried to climb out the window onto the narrow port-side deck. I was nearly out when someone reminded me that I could just exit out the back of the cabin and then climb to the top deck with much less hassle. I ran through the cabin and scrambled to the top of the boat, seating myself amongst the crew members that were already videotaping the whales surrounding us. The boat had come to a full halt. There must have been about fifty pilot whales, slowly rolling along, in fact they were hardly moving. They would briefly slip below the waves, only to surface again within seconds, forcefully exhaling before slipping under again. The closest members of the pod weren’t more than a few meters from the boat on all sides.
“I think they must be preparing for a long dive,” I speculated, “that might explain the unique behavior.”
Sure enough, within ten minutes one by one they slipped away, until the sole remaining whale took one last breath before slipping beneath the surface to the depths below.
Two hours into my journey, and all my fears were washed away. Raja Ampat was already living up to all my wildest expectations, and it would only continue to do so in the week to come.
To be continued…
Footage of the pilot whale encounter courtesy of fellow traveler Charlotte Anais:
Spinner dolphin photo courtesy of N. Nigam photography
