Whale Sharks

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!!!!!

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