Wildlife photographer Juergen Freund recalls a breathtaking encounter with the world’s biggest fish.
Cenderawasih Bay borders three provinces in Indonesia – West Papua, Papua and New Guinea. The bay is blessed with an abundance of special underwater visitors all year round – whale sharks! The biggest fish in the world, whale sharks are attracted by the presence of lift net fishing boats, which the locals call ‘bagan’. The sharks, which are considered good luck, are rewarded with excess fish after a good catch.
After six days of travelling we only had three days to snorkel and dive with the whale sharks. The first day we saw nothing, though things improved on day two with some good encounters. Unfortunately torrential rain on the second night meant that visibility was close to zero underwater on the third day. Although the whale sharks were all around us we could barely see them! There were so many whale sharks in fact they were practically bumping into us! Frustrated with snorkelling, I donned my dive gear and got back into the water. Once I reached about five metres below it was like a blindfold had been lifted. It was magic. Above me eight whale sharks were circling the bagan like aircraft waiting to land at an airstrip!
This shot, which shows my wife Stella snorkelling alongside a whale shark, was a planned silhouette image. I used a 16mm wide-angle lens and I was probably less than five metres away from the shark when I took this shot. Because I was looking to create a silhouette I didn’t use flash, just the sun as a backlight. While it looks like quite a simple shot there were a few challenges. To get the sun right behind the shark, I had to kick to keep up with the shark while signalling to my wife to properly locate herself in the frame. I also had to stop breathing for long periods to prevent the bubbles from my scuba gear appearing in the picture! It was exhausting but fortunately it all came together in this moment. Diving with the biggest fish in Cenderawasih Bay is an experience I will never forget.
Photo by Juergen Freund. Nikon D3X, 16mm f/2.8 lens, f/16 @ 1/250s, ISO 100, Seacam underwater housing, no strobes.
