Whale Sharks

Category: Research | Date: Mar 27 2008 | By: admin

Fantastic news from France!! Our 2 tags have arrived in San Diego and they are now safely in Brent’s hands. They will be sent off for analysis and then stand by for ground breaking data and history making news! I am so relieved that they are safely with Brent. You always worry that such a precious cargo might get lost somewhere along the way…but Brent has just emailed to say he has them and we are delighted!

Here is a close up of tag 66003, our famous year old tag.

 

Look how battered it is - almost like someone has tried to scrape off some bits…for now it is a mystery. We will learn a lot about this tag in the coming days but we will never know everything about its journey…

Volker and I are in France and we send you bisou a tous!!

4 responses so far

Category: Research | Date: Mar 25 2008 | By: admin

Here is the story in pictures of our tags trip to Europe. I carried these tags in my hand luggage like they were gold dust! Here they are in my hand luggage with my book and keys. Can you see how scratched and worn they are? The one that is really badly scratched is the one that has been on a whale shark for a year. It is well worn! You can clearly see the antenna, the high pressure foam bulb float which contains the pressure and temperature guages and then the main tube with all electrics including the battery and software then finally the light sensor which is the clear bit at the bottom which gives us info on ambient light levels. This allows us to determine dive depth, day, time etc.

This is a picture of the tags on my kikoy. A kikoy is a Kenyan type sarong. Check out www.kikoy.com for more info. I don’t go anywhere without mine.

 

Here is Volker holding the tags. I didn’t let them out of my sight and as soon as we landed I took them to the post office to send off to Brent. I won’t be able to relax until they reach San Diego safely!

I will keep you posted on their journey.

4 responses so far

Category: Research | Date: Mar 24 2008 | By: admin

My name is Simon and I have been volunteering with the East African Whale Shark Trust for over a year now. This is the story about how we found the 2 tags.

A few weeks after the the great Expedition 2008, I recieved the call from Nimu that two tags hadfallen off! I rushed to see Nimu and she gave me details as how to locate the tags in two locations on the North coast of Mombasa. We looked at the Google maps Brent had sent us with the GPS locations and Volker showed us how to use the GPS.

I called David French who was then a volunteer with the Trust. The following day we took off  to North coast to go find the tags. According to the coordinates we were given one tag was somewhere at Nature trail (bamburi quarry transformed into animal santuary). It was the adventure and we were happy to look forward to it! On arriving at the spot we were shocked to find out the coordinates were pointing at the tree! Somehow we were confused.

We went on to look for the next on which was about 12 kms away. The funny thing was the GPS we were using directed us to the road which was access to the beach, but the same thing happened as with the first one. Frankly we were discouraged but we didn’t gave up.We put up posters everywhere in the villages where coordinates were close to. Then We headed back home.

Two days later we had some more coordinates which the tags had transmited.The first tag showed that someone was walking with it! On  arrival to the direction where the GPS was pointing it was at the beach but we didn’t have the access to it. So the only way was to  get permission from one of the homesteads next to the beach but it was not easy to explain to the  old man we met. David rushed with the GPSwhich was pointing that the tag was 30m away fro where were but the old man was furious with him for going through his compound. In fact he rushed and picked a machete to attack him! I cooled him down which was not easy. Finally he agreed to take us where the GPS was pointing at. On our way there we met two fishermen who agreed also to help us. On arrival at the spot we started to look for it and after 45min David found it Wow! We rewarded the two fishermen and the old man - they were happy especially the old man who apologised to David.

Then we headed back to the first one. I started talking to the beach boys where the tag had transmitted first. David had rushed to Mombasa briefly. Luckily one of the beach boys told me that they had collected it and one of them had gone with it home hoping it was a torch but it was not working. I went with them but they kept on asking me what was the reward! I told them once Iconfirmed it was the one I will give them each 1000/- or USD 10. A few minutes later they brought it to me I couldn’t believe it was the one! I called Nimu and David! Once we believed the coordinates they were right. It was the adventure I will never forget.    

Here is a picture of me with the tags we found!  

2 responses so far

Category: Research | Date: Mar 19 2008 | By: admin

Remember I told you about the whale shark that was sighted off Mafia island in Tanzania on February 16? Matt Potenski, the researcher in Mafia, has sent me these pictures of our whale shark and its tag!! He told me that it was seen near the surface at 1125hrs. It was a male of about 5.5 metres

What you can see is one of our yellow fabric tags albeit with a lot of algae growth but you can just about make out K001 in the middle. Matt takes neoprene gloves with him to clean the tags and he told me he uses his XL Cressi freediving fins plus a lot of puff to clean the tag off so that he can read it! He had to get back on his boat 4 times and be taken to catch up with this shark 4 separate times in order to clean the tag!  He told me “I simply dive down and grab the tag - swimming fast enough to prevent any tension on the tag string and vigorously wipe the algae away”. What a star!

He also sent us a picture of the shark which will be sent off for photo ID.

Look at all the little fish around it. Isn’t it beautiful? We were so excited to hear from Matt and are so grateful to him for sending us the photos. I had to post this on the blog even though we are about to board a plane in a few hours. I wanted to share these photos with you. Please let me know what you think!

5 responses so far

Category: Education | Date: Mar 17 2008 | By: admin

I don’t know if you remember me telling you about the children’s book I have written about a whale shark. I would be so grateful for any information on how to go about publishing it. If any of you know anything about publishing or if you know anyone who would be able to help me I would really appreciate it. Having never done anything quite like this before I want to know as much about the publishing world as I can before committing to one publisher. I have already had 2 offers but want to go with the absolute best!! Really the initial goal was to have as many children read the book as possible thereby spreading awareness far and wide. Initially I thought just for Kenya  but now I want children all over the world to read it! So if you can help me achieve this it would be wonderful!! It will also be a good way of raising funds for the trust (I hope!).

Volker and I are going away for a few weeks so we might not blog as much as we have been. Will stay in touch though and let you know of course if we get any data from Brent or any news about any of the other tags.

Thanks again for all your support!

5 responses so far

Category: Research | Date: Mar 15 2008 | By: admin

A big thank you to Theresa Siskind for making a very generous donation. It is our second Wildlife Direct donation and we are thrilled. Thank you so much Theresa! Theresa reads our blogs everyday and comments very often. It is so great to have support like hers. The project has no proper funding as such - it is something we are working on really hard. Every little bit counts and we need as much support as possible to run the project. 

Here is David, grinning like a cheshire cat! You can clearly see the 2 tags that he and Simon our other volunteer found last wednesday! We are so happy You can see they aren’t really that big so it was such a miracle that they were found. The press has also shown interest and I was interviewed on saturday. In fact we are in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam for work so have not had time to update the blog as much as I would like. Will post more news and pictures of the tags soon. In fact what you can’t make out is the antennaes that come out of the bulb at the top. I will post more pictures when I get home.

Have a great weekend!

One response so far

Category: Research | Date: Mar 12 2008 | By: admin

Amazing news folks!! We have found BOTH tags. Huge congratulations to our 2 tireless volunteers David and Simon who have been tracking these tags for days. They set off again really early this morning and found the one that came off near Kilifi under some seaweed on the beach. They had called me 5 minutes before moaning about the impossibility of finding it and the inaccuracy of the GPS coordinates. Then hey presto they found it!!

The second one, which is really the pot of gold one was found by a helpful beach boy on Mombasa’s north coast. Simon got talking to him and he then scooted off and found it in the village somewhere. We will now get a to the minute log of that whale shark’s life for the past 365 days. Incredible or what!

I have emailed Brent to tell him all his ships have come in! He is tagging elephant seals somewhere remote but I know he will celebrate tonight! We now have to find a way to get the 2 tags back to Brent in San Diego and then be patient whilst he analyses the data. Stand by for that interesting info when it comes in!

And the trumpet shall sound.

Those of you who have heard Handel’s Messiah will know what I mean.

 Many thanks for your kind wishes and whole hearted support.

4 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 12 2008 | By: admin

There is good news and bad news this morning.

The good news is that the last tag we deployed last year has come off  after one year on a whale shark. It was scheduled to pop off about 2 weeks ago when we started this year’s expedition. We heard nothing and were beginning to fear for the worst but it came off late last week and has been transmitting data ever since. This is really exciting because there is never any guarantee that you will get any data back. Sometimes you never hear from a tag again which is why the more you can put out there the better. We already have the other 2 from last year back - but they came off early after 6 months or so (also better than never coming off or getting lost etc) but with tag 3 from 2007 we will get the full year’s data which is brilliant.

However, we believe it came off somewhere near Pemba Island and was transported to a location just north of Mombasa in an area called Shanzu. Again this is more good news because if they come off in the big blue sea you never find them but here we have a chance because the tag is on land. We have been searching there every day since Saturday, handing out posters, talking to people and generally trying to track the tag down! We know it’s there because Brent is sending us GPS coordinates using the ARGOS satellite system but so far we can’t find it. We are dependent on the goodwill of the fishing villages up there to help us. If we got this tag back it would mean we could get to the minute data of that shark’s life for 365 days. It would be Christmas for Brent! It is really very unusual to recover tags - if they pop off we get a summary of the data which is not at all bad. If you get them back you get ALL the data plus you can reuse the tag again. It is the best possible outcome. So the bad news is that so far we have not tracked down the tag. It’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.

We have a film crew following our search today and we are hoping that whoever has it will hear about the search and return it to us.

Another tag has also come off - one of this years tags. This happens sometimes and although it is a bit disappointing because obviously we would have liked to get 17 tags worth of data in 9 months - 12 months time we must be prepared for these little hiccups. This tag came off further north of Mombasa, actually near Kilifi. Again we have been up there to search and that area is more remote so we are hoping that our posters and constant presence up there will yield results. If we were to get this tag back we could use it again next year and Brent would be delighted!

The tags only transmit for about 2 weeks maximum because then the battery life dies so we don’t have much time left.

Here is a picture of what a satellite tag looks like. They are about as long as from the tips of your fingers to your elbow more or less. If you find one please make our day and send it back to us!! Ours all have Brent’s name and contact details on them. If you can help us with our search in any way please let me know.

Wish us luck with our search!

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Category: Community work | Date: Mar 10 2008 | By: admin

Here is a picture I have been sent by Aniket who came on Expedition 2008. It is a super picture and you can make out the tag on the right hand side of the shark. It is a black object sticking out of the sharks side just behind the dorsal fin.

We have had a very restful weekend here. We went diving and were entertained by a pod of dolphins for ages. They just swam round and round us, it was amazing! Then it was up at the crack of dawn this morning. Volker left for Zanzibar and I went to a meeting with the KWS and TUI/Pollmans representatives to work the whale shark education project into the Year of the Dolphin education campaign. I am also pushing really hard for an aerial survey of our coast line so that we can start to get a clearer picture of how many whale sharks (and turtles, dolphins, whales, mantas etc) we have along our shores. I think it is absolutely critical to whatever research and eco-tourism is bound to follow this year’s expedition.

 Our accoustic array has now arrived all the way from Rachel, WCS in Belize. We are going to put the tags out at the end of April and I will keep you posted on that. We are planning for the last 10 days of April, weather permitting.

Have a good start to your week!

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Category: Community work | Date: Mar 06 2008 | By: admin

It’s back to earth with a bump and back to the real world for us here in Diani. We enjoyed the tagging so much but now it’s back to work!! Simon and David went into schools yesterday to give presentations and generally blow the East African Whale Shark’s trumpet after Expedition 2008!! (Can you really blame us?!!) Volker and I went to a community meeting down in Shimoni on the Year of the Dolphin sponsored by TUI/Pollmans and the Kenya Wildlife Service. It was a lengthy meeting but a productive one. There were various key parties there - school teachers, fishermen, boat operators, local chiefs and projects like ours. We all have the welfare of dolphins and other marine creatures in mind. Last year we adopted a code of conduct for dolphin interaction and this year we plan to build on that. There is a launch planned and other awareness raising campaigns, workshops and projects afoot. This grass roots work is really important and whilst of course we would rather be out there tagging and doing research, nothing can stand on its own hence the need for community meetings so that we can work together. We were glad to be there and Volker is going to run some workshops for the fishermen on how to use echo-sounders. We hope to encourage them to fish away from our precious coral reefs. Echo-sounders will help them find the fish out on the continental shelf and generally make their lives a lot easier. I am going to help start Year of the Dolphin related work in the local schools here in Diani.

Here we are at the meeting. Mr Abdulla Aziz is standing up, next to him is KWS Senior Warden Yusuf, the Assistant Director Philip Mwakio and Dan Schumacher from TUI. You can also see the really impressive wall display in the KWS information centre.

And here is Brent, who will have just about reached home after a monster 48 trip. He is off to tag seals today. We miss you Brent!!

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