Diving around the 3 Gili Islands, it is common to see sharks. Two species are usual:
- white tip reef sharks
- black tip reef sharks.
The white tip reef sharks are the most easier shark to spot.
Some particular dive sites offer higher chance to meet them
White tip and Black tip reef sharks are easier to come across around Gili Trawangan at the dive sites of Shark Point, Sunset Point, Halik and the Glenn Nusa wreck. We can see them around Gili Meno and Gili Air too.
Nevertheless, other shark species frequent our waters too, but they are often very rarely seen, such as bamboo shark, Chiloscyllium punctatum (if you are lucky, you can have a meet with a Whake shark too).
The bamboo shark is usually found sleeping in a cavity. This was the case during this dive, I was looking for baby white tip reef sharks and I found something really beyond my expectation, a rare sight of bamboo shark. The depth was around 18 meters, on a gentle slope at the border between the coral reef and the sandy bottom deeper.
Young white tip reef sharks spend their days in a cavity, just like the Bamboo shark.
During a dive at Sunset Point (dive spot, south of Gili Trawangan), It found it sleeping in a fairly large cave where usually there are some young white tip reef sharks.
During this dive, we saw more than fifteen green and hawksbill turtles.
Do not confuse it with the nurse shark
This bamboo shark is very similar to the nurse shark.
To distinguished them: Bamboo sharks have 2 spiracles, one located under each eye. These spiracles are also present in other marine animals such as stingrays.
They serve in the respiratory cycle of these animals.
