Sumbawa (Part I)

They said Shakespeare wrote three of his greatest tragedies in quarantine during the great plague of 1606. So, in light of the recent coronavirus outbreak, I thought I'd celebrate his spirit, since I'm also in quarantine, by finally sitting down and write about something I've put off writing for a while: my wild whale shark endeavor of January 2020. Please don't expect a piece of Shakespearean proportions, I'm honestly just extremely bored. So without further ado, here's a little sliver of my month in Sumbawa.

I wish I could say I had always thought of sharks, big and small, as gentle creatures. But alas, I have always been part of the majority, those plagued by haunting images set forth by Steven Spielberg's Jaws; A bewildering 120 minutes of sharks circling the water to the infamous Jaws tune, foreboding of its voracious hunt for human flesh. So imagine my surprise when I willingly applied to intern at Conservation International, to learn about, you guessed it, sharks. I had already been somewhat aware of CI's work with whale sharks in Sumbawa since I interned at their Jakarta office last year. Honestly, I've never even heard of whale sharks prior to my internship. I didn't know if they were sharks or whales for god's sake! Luckily, my supervisor assigned me to read and categorize a whole folder of journals on whale sharks so I was at least aware of what they are.

We arrived in Sumbawa on the first week of a wet and gloomy January. It was monsoon season and all the bagans (fishing vessels) were docked due to high winds. We had no choice but to wait it out. Day after day, we'd ask our supervisor, "Is it safe yet? Can we see the whale sharks now?" and day after day, it was the same answer, "nope, it's not safe yet." So, for the first 2,5 weeks or so, we patiently settled for learning to identify whale sharks documented in previous trips, marvelling at the spotted giants through our computer screens. 

Our golden hour finally came during the last week of January. The skies were clear, the water was calm, the bagans were all headed to sea, well most of them, and so were we. We packed our drybags and left the quaint fishing village of Labuhan Jambu at 3 in the morning. Why so unbearably early you ask? Well, whale sharks frequent the Bagans when they lift their nets, which happens at 6 AM and it's a 3 hour boat ride from our fishing village to where the bagans are hence our 3 AM departure. I tried to stay awake on the boat, distracting myself by counting the millions of stars scattered across Sumbawa's clear nightscape, trying to take a mental polaroid every step of the way. But my eyes got the better of me as I slowly drifted off to sleep at the sight of the seemingly boundless sky and sea sprawled in front of me. I woke up to small slivers of sunlight, peeking through my eyelids. Apparently we had already stopped by a bagan but there were no whale sharks, so we decided to move along to other bagans, in hopes of finding what we travelled all this way to see.

We grew restless. Each and every bagan we stopped by all reported the same thing: No whale sharks! None! It was 9 AM, and still nothing. If there were any, they had probably left at this hour. We finally acknowledged the obvious, we weren't going to see any whale sharks today. But, we saw dolphins so that made up for it! And we were finally at sea! Not a completely fruitless first trip after all. 

We tried again a couple of days later, even decided to stay on the bagan for a few days. This time, we left in the afternoon, hitching a ride with fishermen from a nearby village. Our first night on the bagan was.. okay? It wasn't the most comfortable night of my life, I'll leave it at that. We woke up just shy of sunrise when our supervisor told us to get ready, the bagan next to us said they had a swarm of whale sharks! We hastily threw on our swimsuit and got on the boat to the next bagan. My heart was ready to burst out of my chest when I saw it. I could see them! They were gliding across the water, their caudal fins moving side-to-side rhythmically. We dove in immediately, trying to get a closer look at the biggest fish on earth; a fish as rare as a stradivarius. It was, unfortunately, a very quick encounter. The waves were too big, so big in fact that we were struggling to stay afloat. Our supervisor told us to get back on the boat, we had to return to the bagan immediately. Shortly after we got back, our bagan started moving. The fishermen said the winds were too strong, they had to anchor somewhere safer. 

We ended up anchoring near an island. The rest of the day went by slow, and sticky since we couldn't shower (there's a very limited supply of freshwater on the bagan, mainly reserved for drinking and cooking.) Nearing the afternoon, the fishermen were about to leave to a nearby island since our water supply was running low. They asked us if we wanted to tag along and since it had been 2 days since our last shower, we said yes. We packed our toiletries and got on the boat. 

The island was dry and deserted. There was one house on the entire island. We headed straight for the well to take a quick bath and load up on water supply. Being the idiot that I am, I forgot to bring slippers so I had to walk barefoot. Not that I mind walking barefoot, my friends will in fact tell you that I prefer barefoot whenever possible, but in this scenario, I would have very much enjoyed a pair of slippers to protect me from the scorching heat. The sun was still very high in the sky mind you, and since I was barefoot, I had to run like hell back to the boat to prevent blisters. Note to self: ALWAYS BRING SLIPPERS! 

We ended the afternoon by feasting on a simple meal of fried fish, rice and chili sauce. It was literally the best seafood I have ever had.

(to be continued!)