Whale Sharks

Category: Education | Date: Mar 15 2009 | By: whalesharks

We know as fact that whale sharks do several deep dives everyday. They do not fare well in captivity.

Please go to www.whalesharkpetition.com and sign the petition. Tell all your friends to do the same.

Resorts World at Sentosa wants to import whale sharks for the attraction and entertainment of visitors. Whale sharks are vulnerable to extinction and have never done well in captivity. They can grow as large as two city buses, migrate thousands of kilometers in the wild, and live up to a hundred years. It is just plain cruel to keep them in glass cages.

Whale sharks have never fared well in captivity. Two whale sharks died within five months of each other at the Georgia Aquarium.

Write to the Minister of National Development, the Singapore Tourism Board and
Resorts World at Sentosa before this tragedy happens on our shores.

Think of all the whale sharks swimming wild and free, think of how very little we know about these gentle giants and then think of them dying in aquariums. Please sign the petition.

Thank you.

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Category: Research | Date: Mar 12 2009 | By: whalesharks

Here are some pictures of the whale shark we tagged on Sunday 8 March. It was a small juvenile male of about 4 metres tagged by Rachel Graham of the WCS. This shark has been adopted by London Vision Clinic and is called Eagle Eye.

You can see the tag clearly in the picture just below the dorsal fin.

Rachel has been with us for over a week now and this is the only shark we have seen. We are planning to go out again this weekend and Rachel has extended her stay so that she is here for the last 2 days of the expedition! Her enthusiasm abounds and she is firing up her satellite tags in anticipation of the Saturday expedition even as I write this blog so she is obviously hopeful

Thanks for reading our blog and we will keep you posted on how the expedition goes.

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

WONDERFUL NEWS!!!

After almost 2 weeks with zero sightings, yesterday at almost the end of the expedition Rob our pilot spotted a whale shark opposite the Barclays shopping centre. He said he had to look twice and nearly fell out of his seat he was so surprised! We have searched solidly now for 2 weeks with no joy and Rob was coming in to land when we spotted this shark. Quick as  a flash Rachel tagged it with our 3rd acoustic tag and the boat full of kind expedition members danced with joy!

With sightings so low we have had to keep our researcher and film crew busy. One of the things we did was to put down an acoustic receiver in Nyuli which is a deep site further south with the kind assistance of Harm and Selina from Pili Pippa. Harm and Selina run a fantastic snorkelling and diving dhow trip. They will be in charge of the receiver station and work together with us and with Rachel at the WCS to gather and analyse data. We all got some great footage of the Nyuli receiver being put down and I will put some pictures up soon. I had the opportunity to film it with my new video camera. Filming underwater is not as easy as Volker makes it look that’s for sure!! I really enjoyed it but have a lot to learn!

Another thing we did with the Australian filmcrew is take them up to the Shimba hills - Kenya is one of the only places in the world where you can swim with whale sharks in the morning and have sundowners with elephants in the afternoon! Quite a claim to fame and one that will feature in the documentary being made.

We have also been kept busy with local film crews doing stories on the whale sharks. We have had no less than 3 different crews from Nairobi alone. As always the huge interest in our work is so encouraging even when we don’t see any sharks! The boats have been full every day and people are so supportive of what we are trying to do. When they don’t see sharks they all look on the bright side and we haven’t had a single complaint if they don’t see sharks! People understand that whale sharks are wild and free (thank God) and if they don’t show up there’s nothing much we can do about it. But we have seen hundreds of dolphins each day which is always very special. We are learning more each time we take the boat out and put the plane up. This expedition is one of the longest aerial surveys of Kenya’s south coast ever to be carried out. It’s amazing what you can do with community support and interest from the public - we are acutely conscious of that and very grateful to everyone who has supported us.

This shark we tagged yesterday has been adopted and sponsored by London Vision Clinic and is to be called Eagle Eye. Thank you so much to Professor Dan Reinstein and the London Vision Clinic for their kind and constant support to our project. It is through Professor Dan that we met world renowned concert pianist Katya Grineva who you might remember visited the project last year to do some fund raising concerts. It is also thanks to Professor Dan that Katya, my dad and I all have eagle eye vision!

Pictures of Eagle Eyes to follow

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Category: Research | Date: Mar 02 2009 | By: whalesharks

It is the start of a new week and we hope we will see more sharks than we did last week! The sightings have been very poor with no sharks seen for 6 days. We don’t really know why but we suspect it may be due to the unsettled weather we have been experiencing. The sea is a lot rougher than it should be at this time of year and the wind direction keeps changing. Climate-wise nothing is really as it should be but then isn’t that true of so many parts of the world these days.

Despite the disappointing number of sharks, we remain positive. We will keep trying and the huge numbers of people interested in our work keeps us motivated. We have had full boats every day. The media interest has been immense and we have 4 different film crews in the past few days. Reuters, AP, KTN and The Standard have all covered the expedition.

Last night the film crew from Australia and our lead scientist Dr Rachel Graham arrived. We are set for a good weeks worth of work here in Diani. If we don’t see sharks here, we will move the expedition further north where there have been sightings.

We are carrying out the longest and most coherent aeriel survey ever to be done for whale sharks in Kenya. Whatever happens we will learn something and continue to work hard for whale shark conservation in Kenya.

This week the boat is booked exclusively for the Australian film crew to film for their documentary. We are so excited that they are here! Volker gets the opportunity to work alongside one of the top underwater videographers in the world. From Friday the boat is fully booked over the weekend and the last weekend of the expedition is almost fully booked as well. We continue to be amazed and encouraged by the number of people who come and support our work. We are determined and 110% committed to see it through.

I will keep you posted as the week progresses.

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