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| A whale shark tilts upright and yanks on a net, trying to make off with a fisherman's catch. Credit: �Michael Aw/National Geographic. |
An amazing National Geographic photo essay in the October issue�due on newsstands 27 September�tells of the novel relationship between whale sharks and fishermen off Papua, Indonesia.
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| Vying for position under a feeding platform, male whale sharks�two of about twenty that visit this spot�scramble for a snack. Credit: �Michael Aw/National Geographic. |
Normally these 50,000-pound/22,680-kilogram behemoths are tough to find. They cross ocean basins and can dive more than a mile/1.6 kilometers deep. Some travel to Australia's Ningaloo Reef for the annual coral spawning�a feast for filter feeders. No one yet knows where they mate or give birth.
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| Sarmin Tangadji, the Papua police officer who escorted the photographic team to where the sharks congregate, was so excited to see them up close that he jumped in. Credit: �Michael Aw/National Geographic. |
Whale sharks also gather off Papua, where artisanal fishermen�hoping to keep their nets and catches intact�offer the whale sharks food.
From the National Geographic article Sharing With Sharks:
Whale sharks are ordinarily loners. But not in one corner of Indonesia. The photographs on these pages, shot some eight miles off the province of Papua, reveal a group of sharks that call on fishermen each day, zipping by one another, looking for handouts near the surface, and nosing the nets�a rare instance when the generally docile fish act, well, like the rest of the sharks.
You can see all the images and read the photo essay here.
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