Our Projects.

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 26 2007 | By: admin

We have several ongoing projects at the EAWST:

Our research initiative involves everything from distributing sighting forms to tagging and rescue. We keep a daily record of all whale shark sightings and work closely with local diving and fishing operators. If a whale shark gets entangled in a net we try to rescue it - see the video on our website www.giantsharks.org. Our tagging project is perhaps the most cutting edge of all our work. We run yearly tagging expeditions during the peak whale shark season (Feb/March) and this year together with Brent Stewart and Steve Wilson from HUBBS Seaworld Research Institute we led the first ever whale shark satellite tagging expedition off the coast of East Africa! 3 satellite tags were deployed as well as several streamer/identity tags. DNA biopsies were carried out and over 50 sharks were sighting during the 10 day expedition. So far 2 of the tags have come off, one off the coast of Somalia and the other off the coast of Tanzania. We have the latest GPS positions and are very keen to get these tags back not least because they cost over USD4000 each and have very valuable data on them but also because we can reuse them next year. So if you think you can help with the recovery please let us know.

Our education project has us giving presentations and workshops in local schools and hotels.

And our fishermen project allows us to work closely with local fishermen, encouraging a good working relationship so that whale shark sightings are reported and any problems are shared.

We are starting to prepare for the whale shark season now, and aim to get the Diani beach community fully involved in our conservation efforts!

Thanks!