Save the whaleshark capital of the world

[annie]

Wow Katrien you've dived the Muiron Islands. Now there are pristine coral gardens.

I did a fair few dives as DM at the Navy Pier - that place is just crawling with stuff. You really had to watch out for the wobbygongs there - especially since they would sometimes rest on the big horizontal pylons and you would only see them as you were diving alongside. I've run into some enormous cod and grouper there too. AND had a torch fail on me during a nite dive there . . .spooky . . with so much life sheltering in a small site.

Fantastic place. Mind you I didn't like the actual town of Exmouth much, just didn't have any charm for me. I was there during a major photography festival with Stan Waterman and David Doubilet, unfortunately didn't meet them. My housemate did. She was lucky - on the British national freediving team so when snorkelling with whalesharks she could dive way down and around and under them and stay down there for ages. Amazing.

 

[finstotheleft]

What's a wobbygong?

 

[annie]

A wobbygong shark (also called a carpet shark) is a bottom dwelling, flattened, very well camoflaged shark. They're all mottled green and brown, and have a weird prehistoric look to their fins (well to me anyway).
They'll bite if disturbed and have lightning reflexes - they can turn and bite their own tail (or rather, the hand that's pulling it) so fast that if you blinked you'd miss it.
Sometimes if one's been upset or harassed by a diver, it will attack the next diver that happens by, unprovoked.
They don't do any major damage when they bite as they have little teeth but they would give a serious bruising and I've been told they don't let go again too easily. They can be quite big too. They've always given me the creeps to be honest, they have a menacing look and a dodgy temperament.
I definitely didn't like it when they hung out on the horizontal pier pylons level with my head as I was finning past . . .I hated that! I usually stayed well away them - they're usually lying motionless on the bottom, can be very hard to spot.

Interesting enough a marine biologist on the whale shark boat one day told me that whale sharks are closely related to bottom dwelling sharks - they are also flattened with wide mouths. I wonder how they ended up cruising the surface for plankton.

 

[annie]

I forgot to add, I think wobbies are exclusive to Australia.

 

[Katrien]

Yes, I saw them at the pier. The biggest one was lying on top of the tires that lie next to the pier as if to say, "this is my kingdom". But the craziest things I saw there were things like an "sea appel" a weird anemone in fluo red and white stripes and a frogfish and stuff. Things I never saw anywhere else. And yes, I think the wobbies only live in Aussi.

The nicest thing about the Murion Islands is the nudibranches. They are everywhere! All different and all in the most amazing colours.
About Exmouth, I just meant that I don't want any more people going and staying there than before, because the people who live there, know they have something special (the reef of course) and the people that come there feel privileged to be there. But when lots of people go, it will take the magic out of the cape, the reef. It would become a "holiday attraction". Suppose that when you were there on that boat, there were 20 other boats around... I bet you sure wouldn't have felt the way you did now. The reef wouldn't get the respect that it deserves anymore.

For which company were you working as a dive master? And what do you do now?
Did you also go diving in other parts of the world?

 

[canuckdiver]

letter sent

I hope they come to their senses, and realize that places like this that man hasn't screwed up yet are getting to be in short supply.

 

[Katrien]

Hey ho, thanks very much, but read a bit on...
The prime minister rejected the proposal voor a holiday resort!
Read it on: www.thewest.com.au/20030704/news/latest/tw-news-latest-home-sto103861.html

 

[Katrien]

I'd like to ask a question. It's probably a very silly question, but eu, is this an American forum? It seems so because a lot of the people here seem to live is the US?

 

[canuckdiver]

the majority of the people are from the US in here, but as a whole, we are from all over.

I'm from canada, and I have seem members from croatia, austria, belgum, australia, france, etc.