UPY 2025

UPY  Up & Coming - Highly Commended
'Whaleshark buffet'
Gary Peart

We had travelled almost the entire length of Indonesia to reach Papua in the far east of the country. The whale shark stories from Cenderawasih bay were still only rumours and no dive operations existed with which to find this new phenomena. We finally arrived at a floating fishing platform on a Papuan police patrol boat. The local fisherman living on the platform began shouting “besar ikan”, big fish, and pointing in the water.
We descended to find 10 adult whale sharks beneath the platform. I soon realized that capturing one of these huge sharks feeding, literally sucking fish matter out of the suspended fishing nets, would make a great image. The real challenge was getting the shot without being ‘gently’ nudged out of the way by more giant sharks eager to share the buffet.