SPOTTING OCEAN GIANTS

FROM RAYS OF SUNSHINE TO WHALES

Leaving a gift in your Will to nature is rarely about a single moment. More often, it’s the result of a lifetime of experiences quietly adding up.

For David Waterhouse, those experiences have unfolded in many places, but often in nature — including at sea, through rare encounters with some of the world’s largest and most remarkable creatures. Over time, these moments shaped not just his appreciation for the natural world, but his sense of responsibility toward protecting it.

David has chosen to include a gift in his Will to WWF-Australia and in this reflection, he shares a handful of encounters that stayed with him — and why giving back to nature felt like a natural next step. The expression ray of sunshine took on a whole new meaning for me at sixteen years of age. I was standing at the stern of a ship sailing through the Red Sea bound for Aden on the Arabian Peninsula. As we passed the Sinai Peninsula, I became aware of distant white splashes, as if an inaudible barrage of shells was being fired from a naval vessel. The sea was calm and the winter sun shone brightly upon it and the barren shoreline beyond. I had no telescope or binoculars but could make out the extraordinary sight of what appeared to be huge black blankets with snow white undersides emerging high above the water surface before ‘belly-flopping’ down again with great white splashes. A man at the rail loaned me his binoculars which I hastily focused on that unearthly display in the distance. It was soon revealed as a party of Giant Manta Rays, huge fish which I only knew as illustrations in nature books. As one of the ‘marine vampires’ rose into the air, I could make out the pointed ‘wings’ of its flattened ‘cape’ and long, thin tail which flicked behind it. When several were airborne at once, for just a few seconds before splashdown, I stood transfixed.

It was a group mating display enacted by the male rays to impress the females. Ras Mohammed at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, is a known gathering place for these fearsome looking, but quite harmless, giant fish. Impressive as such distant views were, they would have been immeasurably more so up close. Giant Manta Rays can attain a width of seven metres and weigh up to a whopping two tons. Imagine one landing on one’s boat! The sweeping strokes of the pointy ‘wings’, the white belly crossed with gill slits and the long, pointed tail which carries no sting lends them a fearsome appearance. Despite this they are not dangerous to humans, but it is no wonder the old English name for this ocean giant was ‘devil fish’. It was some years before I was to encounter other large ocean creatures, this time at much closer quarters. It happened quite by chance. I was on a fishing boat at first light near Nelson Bay, north of Newcastle, New South Wales. Before we had reached the heads of the inlet, I spotted a large object in the water ahead of the vessel. In the early morning light, it appeared as a dark dome with a head and flippers. As we passed, it was clear it was a turtle, but a strange one. Instead of a carapace of large, jointed plates, which one expects of a turtle it was encased in a thick, leather-like jacket surmounted by parallel ridges. It was, in fact, a leatherback turtle. It looked huge as it sculled its great bulk through the calm waters. As we sped up and left it in our wake a second one was seen ahead. Two within a few minutes.

Leatherback Turtles are quite rare and seldom seen away from their breeding beaches, so we had been lucky. They are becoming rarer for a variety of reasons, including ingesting plastic bags mistaken for large, floating jellyfish, their usual food.

Some years later, on the continental shelf off Wollongong, south of Sydney, I had an even closer encounter with an even larger ocean giant. The sea was remarkably calm. I was idly looking over the side of the boat, when a large, black shape emerged like a huge bus alongside us. Suddenly, right before our eyes, a gaping hole opened on top of the massive head of the great Sperm Whale along the side of our boat. With a deep sigh, the whale expelled great spumes of breath before taking in air. I could clearly see the swelling of the muscles on each side of the huge spiracle known as the ‘blowhole’ as it did so. Air exchanged, the leviathan slowly sank before our astonished gaze and was gone.

Even the boat’s skipper had never been witness to such a sight so close. When I saw the film Moby Dick as a boy, I never expected that in later life I would have such a Captain Ahab moment. The memory of that day, more than two decades ago, is still fresh in my mind, as I’m sure it is with the others on that boat on that calm and sunny morning.

Some encounters pass in a moment. Others stay for a lifetime. For David, these experiences weren’t just memories to look back on, they became something to carry forward. Leaving a gift in his Will became a way for David to honour what nature has given him and to help protect it long into the future. A gift in your Will to WWF Australia is one of the most enduring ways to care for the natural world. It helps ensure that places like our oceans and the remarkable life within them, can continue to exist, be witnessed and be protected for generations still to come.

Because the stories nature gives us don’t end with us.