A new paper attempts to explain why whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) gather in large number at specific sites around the world. Published in the PeerJ journal, it investigates whether the bathymetry characteristics of the aggregating sites are similar. Nearly all of them are shallow areas, close of deep water with steep slopes. The paper suggests that these conditions will produce upwellings events and an abundance of food.
We have a few spaces available on the 2018 Wetpixel Whale Sharks trip. It is running from 10 to 16 August and we will be based in comfortable accommodation at the Playa la Media Lune hotel on Isla Mujeres. Unlike most trips that run to see the sharks, our skippers are full time professional charter boat captains that spend the bulk of their time at seas looking for fish. We also tend to leave early and stay late, allowing us to maximize the crucial times when the sharks are relatively undisturbed by other parties.
A new paper in the journal Endangered Species Research shows that the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar has emerged as a hot spot for whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). By using the global sightings database, Wildbook for Whale Shark researchers have identified 85 individual sharks, which do not seem to have come from other feeding areas in the Indian Ocean.
BBC India has reported on the remarkable story of Dinesh Goswami of the Prakruti Nature Club, Gujarat, India who has saved over 500 whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) by persuading local fishermen and politicians to protect them. When sharks become inadvertently tangled in fishing nets, Dinesh and his team record the animals statistics and the GPS location, before cutting the nets to release them.
A new study in the Journal BioScience utilizes imagery taken by citizen scientists to analyze population, distribution and movement of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). An application designed by NASA to recognize stars has been used to automatically catalog and identify sharks from images uploaded to the Wildbook for Whale Sharks. Some 30,000 individual encounters with 6,000 shark in 54 countries have been analyzed thus far.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reports that the Indonesian authorities have foiled an attempt to export two whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) into the marine megafauna trade in China and SE Asia.
The latest Earth Touch video features “Close Encounter With Feeding Whale Sharks”. The focus of the episode are the whale sharks of Cenderawasih Bay, Indonesia where divers are almost always guaranteed to see whale sharks. They are present year round and congregate beneath the platforms of local fishermen.
One of the largest whale shark processing factories in the world was recently uncovered in PuQi, China. Factory manager Mr. Li Guang admitted to processing more than 600 whale sharks a year at his factory. Whale sharks are listed as an endangered species.
Wishing everyone a very happy Whale Shark Day! August 30th is International Whale Shark Day (Día del Tiburon Ballena), so declared in 2008 during the International Whale Shark Conference.
We have now finalized our plans for our Wetpixel Whale Shark trips for 2014. The dates of the trips are 26 July to 1 August followed by 1 to 7 August. They will be based on the island of Isla Mujeres, Mexico, which is a short ferry ride from Cancun. The annual whale shark ((Rhincodon typus) aggregation that occurs here is quite simply one of the most amazing spectacles in the oceans and if you haven’t been yet, you really should!