Cenderawasih Marine Park, West Papua Day 15

Saturday 11th October 2025

The sun was up, but the sky was dark, as heavy clouds hung over Cenderawasih Bay. There had been a big storm last night and the sea was murky and full of vegetation washed into the Bay from the surroundings islands. The ocean currents were strong as we crossed the bay to our fishing Bagan. A Bagan is a floating platform used for fishing. Heritage Expeditions compensate the fisherman to reserve a portion of their catch of small fish (sardines and anchovies) to feed to the whale sharks. In doing so it keeps the whale sharks coming back to their platform. We on the other hand were carefully sliding into the water from our Zodiacs and through the low light conditions under the surface we started to focus on these giants of the sea. There were five different Whale Sharks. It was an incredible experience for me to be swimming about and have one of them bump into me. They just appear out of nowhere swimming up underneath me. Eventually, with rough seas were beginning to tire me out so after a second swim with them I headed back to the Zodiac and back on board for a hot shower.  Feature image by S. Bradley, Heritage Expeditions

Whale Shark feeding at the Bagan. Image by S Bradley, Heritage Expeditions

That afternoon we visited the village of Nabire on the mainland. The red smiles and busy jaws of many of the locals here suggested we were well and truly entering Betel Nut country.

Nabire village

The welcome

the guitar/drummer