Whale Sharks

Category: Research | Date: Feb 24 2009 | By: whalesharks

As promised here are some pictures of the whale shark tagging expedition 2009. This is the microlight.

This is the flight crew. Alexis is the pilot and he is in the middle, his girlfriend Emma and Chris the cameraman on either side of him. The team fly for 3 - 4 hours per day and do an amazing job helping us!

This is the boat we used called Melia (daughter of Neptune). It belongs to Southern Cross Scuba. SXS has several dive bases, one of which is at Aqualand Watersports Centre next to Pinewood Village Hotel on Galu Kinondo beach where we meet each morning at 10am.

And here are the lucky people swimming with the biggest fish on the planet! An experience you will never forget

We have circled the shark for you. They are not as easy to spot as you think! Best is when they are swimming over a sandy patch like in the picture here.

Meet Bumble, adopted by Peter and Philipa Gibbon, Kenya’s first acoustically tagged shark. May he bumble on peacefully for many years to come and enjoy a long and happy life.

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Category: Research | Date: Feb 23 2009 | By: whalesharks

Another cracking day with 3 sightings and 1 tagged. This shark was also adopted and sponsored by Peter and Philipa Gibbon last year. I will let you know what the name is!!

I have wonderful sponsors lined up for our 3rd tag and 4th tag, after which it’s anybodys game so please help us by sponsoring a shark! Professor Dan Reinstein and the London Vision Clinic have sponsored the next tag. Thank you so much Professor Dan! And Camp Kenya and Camps International have sponsored the 4th acoustic tag we put out. Thank you so much Camps!

Pictures to follow when the expedition team returns later and I get a chance to download them Wanted to share the good news with you immediately!

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Category: News | Date: Feb 23 2009 | By: whalesharks

The whale shark adopted and sponsored by Peter and Philipa Gibbon is to be called Bumble. Many thanks again Peter and Philipa for your kind support! Bumble is Kenya’s first shark to be tagged with an acoustic tag.

Yesterday we didn’t see any sharks and I am just leaving now to see off the expedition of 20 Swedish students. We have to take 60 litres of petrol to the pilot and then organise and brief the expedition members down at Aqualand. It’s going to be a busy day.

Will keep you posted.

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Category: Research | Date: Feb 21 2009 | By: whalesharks

Expedition 2009 is off to a flying start. With 15 eager participants, a filmcrew from the Nation and a KWS team on board the anticipation was high as they all set off. Volker and I were both wide awake at 5am too excited to sleep.

I watched them set off wondering how the day would turn out. Whale sharks were spotted yesterday by divers and we have a microlight as air support (I can hear it droning overhead as I write this) so all the signs were good. But you never know! And I can never relax until I get the call from Volker -

 ”WHALE SHARK TAGGED!!!”

Volker has just called me Less than an hour into the first expedition they found a whale shark, everyone swam with it and it was tagged with Kenya’s first acoustic tag. This tag was sponsored by Philippa Gibbon (Gwili from the Colobus Trust’s mum). Philippa sponsored our first 2 acoustic tags as presents for Gwili’s dad and uncle.

So a BIG thank you to Philippa - her acoustic tag is finally deployed and well done to Volker and everyone on the expedition team today

Do you remember this mournful picture of Volker’s fins from the acoustic expedition we did in April last year? No sharks were spotted and Volker didn’t get a chance to even get in the water!

We are already a far cry from that and we’ve only just started!!!!!

Please donate and help us keep the expedition going.

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Category: News | Date: Feb 13 2009 | By: whalesharks

Dugong find in Kiunga Marine National Reserve

The news filtered through the village, in disbelieving whispers that a dugong”nguva” had been caught in one of fishermen gillnets. There was a palpable but restrained sense of excitement in Kiunga village. Then fishermen confirmed and identified whose nets had caught the dugong there was a pandemonium in the otherwise sleepy village.   Everyone who could walk (mostly women and children) made a beeline to the fish landing site to wait for the mysterious and extremely rare dugong.  

The last time a dugong was sighted in Lamu archipelago was in 2003 and it was already dead. The exciting part is that the fisherman in whose gillnet the baby dugong was caught said that the mother was in the vicinity. This indicates that there is a breeding dugong population north of Kiunga Marine National Reserve   presenting and opportunity as well as a challenge to the conservation of these rare sea cow.   It interesting to note that although there have been anecdotal sightings of dugongs along the coast especially in Shimoni and Kisite areas at the southern coast of Kenya dugong foraging grounds have not been exactly identified unlike in Kiunga where the dugong was entangled in a gillnet set  across sea grass beds.

The dugong is a subject to many lores and stories in the Bajuni culture such as the mermaids (dugongs are part of the mermaid lore and its believed and practiced that any fishermen who brought a female dugong to shore must be taken to the mosque to swear that he did not have carnal knowledge with it - this was mainly due to similarity of a female dugong with a woman body)

Conservation implications

The baby dugong entangled in the gill net indicates that there is a breeding population in Kiunga Marine National Reserve.  This brings to fore the need to develop conservation strategy for this esoteric sea mammal using a wealth of indigenous knowledge that could disappear forever if not integrated into mainstream policy and research.First and foremost the population needs to be verified, set up code of conduct for identified dugong foraging sites and regular monitoring and research to glean more information and knowledge about these mammals at this part of the world – Western Indian Ocean

Threats

The greatest threat to dugongs is the loss of their habitats (sea grass) due siltation and increase in nutrients from human activitiesFishing nets also pose a threat to dugongs as clearly shown by the entangled baby dugong in Kiunga. 

Dugong facts  

Along with the manatee and the now-extinct Steller’s Sea Cow, the dugong makes up the order Sirenia.

Dugongs are usually found in shallow waters protected from large waves and storms. Dugongs live for approximately 70 years. Female dugongs first breed between the ages of six and 17 years old. They produce calves every 2.5-5 years with a gestation period of one year. Dugongs reach adult size between 9 and 17 years of age.

Dugongs have an average size of 2.4 to 3 meters and weigh between 231 to 500 kilograms; they can stay underwater for approximately 6 minutes. Dugongs graze on underwater grasses day and night. Dugongs spend much of their time alone or in pairs, though they are sometimes seen gathered in large herds of a hundred animals.Dugongs are sought after for their meat, oil, skin, bones, and teeth. Dugongs are now legally protected throughout most of their range, but their populations are still in a tenuous state. Dugong can be found in warm coastal waters from East Africa to Australia, including the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacific. Dugongs are also highly migratory.

 Internationally, dugong are listed on Appendix I of the Conservation of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and on Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species (the CMS).

This report was sent to me by Mike Olendo, WWF Kiunga which is in Northern Kenya. We are all very excited because dugongs are so rare these days! We are hoping to put a programme together to see if we can tag some. It is encouraging to see that they are still around our coast. Thanks to Mike and his team for the write up and great photos!

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Category: Research | Date: Feb 09 2009 | By: whalesharks

Very exciting news for us here at the project!! The Wildlife Conservation Society has funded 2 satellite tow tags and they are going to put them on 2 Kenyan whale sharks during our expedition later this month! Thank you to Dr Rachel Graham and the WCS!

The satellite tow tags or splash tags are satellite tags attached to the whale sharks with a tether so that everytime the whale shark swims near the surface the tag can transmit data. We are able to track the shark’s movements in close to real time each time the tag breaks the surface. So rather than waiting for months or even years, we can find out where are sharks are going and can track their movements!

Rachel is coming with these tags as well as some acoustic tags in a few weeks. We first met Rachel at the 1st International Whale Shark Conference in Perth in 2005. We have kept in close contact over the years and met again in Mexico at the 2nd International Whale Shark Conference in Holbox in 2008. Rachel is the world wide acoustic tag specialist and has set up the MarineMeganet which will allow us to track our whale sharks world wide through a string of underwater acoustic arrays.

She has done a lot of work all over the world particularly in Belize where she lives and she has recently started along the East African coast in Madagascar. Now she will add Kenya to her list of acoustic tag areas.

This is a picture of some of the delegates at the conference in Mexico. That’s Rachel at the front waving, behind her is her husband Dan and 2nd born son Gabriel both of whom would come tagging with us in Mexico! Other luminaries in the picture include Brad Norman sitting opposit Rachel, Jennifer Smith (geneticist) and Mark Meekan. A very sunburnt Volker is behind Dan.

We are very excited that Rachel will be coming to Kenya in a few weeks to help us put out these tags. As always, any donations will go towards the expenses of the project. If anyone wants to adopt any of the sharks we tag let me know!! The 2 sharks that we tag with the splash tags will be called Obama and Michelle

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