Hammerhead sharks are a rare sight at Gili Islands. But a few days ago we saw one! Here’s the full story:
On Sunday morning we were on the 8:30 dive boat with Oceans 5. It was not a busy morning, there were only seven divers with boat captain Cakdi on the boat. When we arrived to Sunset, south of Gili Trawangan, the sea was calm, no waves, wind or current.
Arne and Jarle, my Norwegian dive buddies and me got into the water and quickly decended to around 29 meters. From there we started to work our way up to the bummies where we usually see the baby Whitetip sharks. As we were closing to 24 meters I saw a two meter long Whitetip lying on the seabed, getting cleaned by a few Cleaner fish. When we were about three meters away from it, it started to swim. First going around a bummy and then coming back, swimming an eight shape around us. We stopped to witness this amazing sight, Jarle was taking video with his Gopro. We watched this for a good five minutes, enjoying the majestic moves of the shark swimming around us.
When it finally turned away, I watched how it started to swim towards the blue. And then another object in midwater caught my eye. Something big was moving a little bit above me and to the left. There was no doubt about it! A Hammerhead shark came from the shallow part of the reef, maybe two meters above us, three or four meters in front of us. It moved slowly from left to right, right in front of us and continued towards the deep. Jarle saw it, Arne saw it and I saw it. The shape of the head left no space for speculations. The first Hammerhead sighting at Gilis for over two years!
