Whale Sharks

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