Triton Bay’s Bryde’s Whales
Even before my first visit to Triton Bay, I had known there was a resident population of Bryde’s whales here. But throughout the first few months we never saw them, and I admit I had doubts as to their existence. When I finally saw a water spout (but not the whale itself) I knew the reports were true. Eventually we did see the whales, but it was well into our first season. Sightings are still rare and far between.
Bryde’s Whales (pronounced as “broo-dess”) are baleen whales and are similar in appearance to minke, fin, and sei whales. There are two, maybe three different types of Bryde’s whales; the ones around Kaimana are coastal and are here year round. This particular species prefers warm water – it is the only baleen whale that spends all its time in tropical or sub-tropical water. They feed on anchovies (which are also favored by the whale sharks here!) and krill and grow to a maximum size of around 16m. For more information on this species, please check out this link.
These whales are not easy to approach as they just submerge if the boat gets too close. One August day coming back from Kaimana we saw them breaching from afar. We approached slowly, killed the engines, and waited. The hope was that they would come check us out, and one did, allowing me to get some video. This particular whale was about 10m long judging from the distance between his dorsal fin and his blow hole. There were at least two of them, and most likely more as we saw the whales surface from at least 3 different directions around us. It was such a thrill to see this animal up close and words just can’t come close to describing the feeling.
Jimmy
Plants and Flowers
One thing we knew right from the beginning when we first started building was that the land at the back of the resort was very fertile. Here was untouched rain forest and the land took months to clear. At first we thought we had cut down too many trees, but within a few months all the tree stumps we thought were dead had regrown two or three meters. Now, after two years those tree stumps tower five or six meters. When we were building, someone ate papaya, and papaya must be the world’s fastest growing tree. From nothing, a papaya tree can reach three or four meters in a year if it gets enough water, and the resort must have about thirty trees by now!
But not all plants grow as fast and as easily as papaya. Some plants like lots of water, some don’t. Last summer it rained once in three months; this summer maybe there was only one day that it didn’t rain! So even though the papaya trees have done very well, it has been almost impossible to keep plants such as bouganvilias which don’t like too much water. Additionally, the land at the front where the bungalows are is quite sandy, so it has been a challenge to grow flowers there.
But for the most part we are quite happy with the variety of plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables that we have growing here. In addition to the many coconut trees, we have mango and wax apple trees which are seasonal. There are a few banana trees that are beginning to bear fruit, and we have grown tomatoes, long beans, melons, and chile peppers. The boys have found wild orchids around the island, and we have planted a few that are just beginning to blossom now.
Below is a gallery of some of the plants that we have here. There are a few that I don’t know the names of, so if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated!
End of Season Wrap
At the end of May we wrapped up our second season in Triton Bay. It started in late September last year with the biggest El Nino’s ever wrecking havoc on the global climate. Triton Bay saw colder than normal water temperatures to start the season and a long stretch of many months without much rain. We focused on nudibranchs and other critters as they seemed to come out with the colder water, however by February the water had begun to warm and the rains came. Triton Bay did not escape the effects of the El Nino, as in the last month of the season many of the coral in the shallows were bleached. We hope that the changing of the seasons in June and colder water coming in from the south will be timely enough to reverse the bleaching and will know in a few months.
This past season we explored Triton Bay a bit more, found a few more dive sites, and discovered a few new critters, 2 of them being the sailfin anthias and Bulbonaricus pipefish – big thanks to Ned & Anna DeLoach and the crew of the Dewi Nusantara! If you’ve never heard of either of these fish, don’t worry neither have most divers. We even heard that a diver aboard one of the visiting liveaboards saw and photographed a rhinopia, which we believe has never been seen before in Triton Bay. But there is still a lot waiting to be discovered, and we hope to be able to do a bit more exploratory diving with guests who have the time and inclination to do so.
Among the visitors we had the pleasure of hosting were some amazing photographers, with select photos of theirs added to our Guest Galleries. A few visitors were part of the very first exploratory trip to Triton Bay in 2006 and came back to see the place they had such fond memories of. It was amazing to hear their stories of the beginning. We had visitors from the first season who came back to see us after less than a year. We had families with young children and certified a whole family of new Open Water divers! We even hosted Indonesian government officials and generals, including the military commander of West Papua!
On the marketing side, we took part in trade shows in Hong Kong and Deep Indonesia in Jakarta. We were represented at the Boot show in Germany via an agent, and need to give out a special thanks to Connie, a guest from the first season, who helped represent us there. We look forward to hosting all the friends we met at the these trade shows at the resort some time in the not too distant future!
It is June now and we have begun construction of two more bungalows, which should be ready to house new guests by the beginning of next season. Updates as usual will be through FaceBook.
Below is a gallery of some of our favorite photos that were never posted onto either Facebook or the Guest Galleries:
Blessing Ceremony
We had some down time at the resort at the end of January and so our Papuan partners performed a traditional blessing ceremony for the land. It was a short, simple ceremony that involved some prayers in Arabic (they are Muslim), some offerings (including four roosters to be sacrificed), and a big lunch for everyone involved. It may have been a little late, but we’re happy to have had it done and everything is proper to everyone’s satisfaction.
Pygmy Seahorses of Triton Bay
We had another post last year about Triton Bay being a paradise for pygmy seahorses, but that blog entry really only featured the very common purple Bargibanti species. Since we’ve been seeing a lot of different species recently its time for an update. In addition to the Bargibanti, we’ve seen: Pontohi, Severns, Denise, Satomi, and possibly Colemani, but these creatures are so small its difficult to be certain which is which, though we’ve done our best to identify them. Photo credits to our guests: Connie Thieme, Gordon Tillen, Ian Kerr, Thomas Kuhn, and Thomas Haider.
