Population structure and residency patterns of whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, at a provisioning site in Cebu, Philippines. Measuring perceived crowding in the marine environment: Perspectives from a mass tourism ‘swim-with’ whale shark site in the Philippines. The massive shark named Trixie died on Friday after “having difficulty navigating the habitat earlier in the day,” the aquarium said in a statement on its Facebook page. Individual whale sharks usually stay in the bay for only a day, before continuing their movements. Capacity building of the enforcement team is a major thing that needs to be strengthened. The species remains highly threatened and faces an uncertain future without proper conservation measures. Unlike many other sharks, whale sharks' mouths are located at the front of the head rather than on the underside of the head. Population structure, residency patterns and movements of whale sharks in Southern Leyte, Philippines: results from dedicated photo-ID and citizen science. Donsol Bay is home to the Philippines' first whale shark tourism destination, which began in 1998 with the assistance of WWF-Philippines. Wildlife Trust of India announced that the population of whale sharks has seen a decline by 63 percent over the last 75 years, in the Indo-Pacific region. The decline of the population in the Pacific is around 40 to 92 per cent, inferring an overall decline of 63 per cent over the last 75 years, or three generations of sharks. Locally known as Butanding, Tikitiki, Tuki, or Tawiki, the whale shark has always been in the lives of Filipinos. These whale sharks also interact with local small-scale fishers near-shore, as well as medium-scale and commercial fishing vessel offshore. 193. Araujo, G., Rohner, C. A., Labaja, J., Conales, S. J., Snow, S.J., Murray, R., Pierce, S.J., & Ponzo, A. PeerJ 6:e5231; (2018), A guilty pleasure: Tourist perspectives on the ethics of feeding whale sharks in Oslob, Philippines. In 2013, in collaboration with Conservation Sew Mates, LAMAVE hosted a workshop on supplementary livelihood projects to support the establishment of Sea Breeze Womens’s Association - the wives, sisters, daughters, and mothers of the KASAKA whale shark spotters and tour guides who handcraft soft whale shark souvenirs as a supplementary livelihood. Prior to the setting up of the IWC in 1946, unregulated whaling had depleted a number of whale populations to a significant extent, and several whales species were severely endangered. The whale shark season runs from November to June and are highly dictated by the southwest monsoon. The IUCN estimates that 75 per cent of the global population is inferred to occur in the Indo-Pacific, while 25 per cent are in the Atlantic.     Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) said whale sharks, the largest living fish in the world, are vanishing from the face of the earth due to factors like climate change, rampant fishing and ocean pollution.    However, a senior official from the Union Environment ministry said efforts were on to revive the number of whale sharks and if needed, the government will spend around Rs 2-3 crores annually for its conservation.    Whale sharks have been classified as endangered in the red list of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and are also called 'Gentle Giants' with maximum aggregation off the Gujarat coast.    Sajan John, marine expert from WTI, said these giants are mainly targeted for their meat but ocean pollution and warming were also affecting them.    "India needs to have a stronger dialogue with countries to protect this mega fauna which migrates from one country's coast to another and gets killed on the way.    "The population of these large and vulnerable aquatic animals which are deliberately targeted for meat, has declined by 63 per cent in the last over seven decades, also due to other factors like climate change, ocean pollution and fishing pressure," John said at the sidelines of The 13th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP 13) here.    WTI is working with the Gujarat government to rescue whale sharks which get stuck in fishing nets along its coast.    John said fishing of whale sharks is also done to collect and trade its fins. It is well known that overexploitation by the whaling industry led to serious declines in many of the world’s populations of whales, although thankfully no species was brought to extinction and many are now in the process of recovering, although not all. Long-term photo-identification reveals the population dynamics and strong site fidelity of adult whale sharks to the coastal waters of Donsol, Philippines.     The CMS COP 13 kickstarted on February 17 with pre-COP meeting held on February 15 and 16 setting the agenda of India. 22:61-77, Photo-ID and telemetry highlight a global whale shark hotspot in Palawan, Philippines. A long-term continuous record (4436 sightings) from a large aggregation (300–500 resident individuals) of whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia shows that mean shark length declined linearly by nearly 2.0 m and relative abundance measured from ecotourism sightings (corrected for variation in search effort and environmental stochasticity) has fallen by approximately 40% over the last decade. Araujo G, Vivier F, Labaja JJ, Hartley D, & Ponzo A. Learning from a provisioning site: code of conduct compliance and behaviour of whale sharks in Oslob, Cebu, Philippines. A recent study in the Philippines highlighted the movement of whale sharks between one site in Palawan, and Malaysia and Indonesia. Whale shark sightings, corrected for effort, dropped by 96% between 1998 and 2001. Vessel strikes (commercial and recreational vessel), Climate change (shift and reduction in food distribution/availability), Habitat degradation and destruction (Oil & gas extraction, transportation and processing, coastal development, solid and chemical pollution). A study recently published in Animal Microbiome outlines important first steps in understanding epidermal microbial communities in beluga whales, as well as their role in beluga health. PTI February 19, 2020 18:47 IST. Through underwater observations and photographs, the sex of 180 whale sharks was identified, 88% of which were male, and the majority of these males (53%) were considered sexually mature, with claspers (reproductive organs) extending beyond the pelvic fins and having a cauliflower appearance. Whale sharks naturally aggregate here to feed in these rich waters. Araujo, G., Agustines, A., Tracey, B., Snow, S., Labaja, J., & Ponzo, A. Environmental Management (2018). Norman, B.M., Holmberg, J.A., Arzoumanian, Z., Reynolds, S.D., Wilson, R.P., Rob, D., Pierce, S.J., Gleiss, A.C., de la Parra, R., Galvan, B., Ramirez-Macias, D., Robinson, D., Fox, S., Graham, R., Rowat, D., Potenski, M., Levine, M., Mckinney, J.A., Hoffmayer, E., Dove, A.D.M., Hueter, R., Ponzo, A., Araujo, G., Aca, E., David, D., Rees, R., Duncan, A., Rohner, C.A., Prebble, C.E.M., Hearn, A., Acuna, D., Berumen, M.L., Vázquez, A., Green, J., Bach, S.S., Schmidt, J.V., Beatty, S.J., & Morgan, D.L. Feeding the world’s largest fish: highly variable whale shark residency patterns at a provisioning site in the Philippines. Ziegler, J.A., Silberg, J.N., Araujo, G., Labaja, J., Ponzo, A., Rollins, R., & Dearden, P. Tourism Management 68 (2018) 264-274, Applying the precautionary principle when feeding an endangered species for marine tourism, Ziegler, J.A, Silberg, J.N, Araujo, G., Labaja, J., Ponzo, A., Rollins, R., Dearden, P. Tourism Management 72 (2019) 155-158, Using long-term integrated research programs to improve whale shark tourism at Oslob, Philippines. The sizes of sharks observed suggest that the majority were juveniles. One of the main research techniques we use to understand whale shark ecology is photographic identification (photo-ID). Using long-term integrated research programs to improve whale shark tourism at Oslob, Philippines. Their population has seen a sharp decline but with the assistance of fishing community and WTI, revival work is going on. The tracks revealed movements within the park as well as to various key habitats in the Bohol Sea. Vessel-based and aerial sighting surveys, acoustic monitoring, and analysis of individual animal markings are techniques used independently or in conjunction with each other to count whales. What began as a small tourist operation, has skyrocketed into a growing, mostly unregulated industry. After eight years of data collection, stakeholders’ meetings, trainings and workshops at the local, regional and national level, and several scientific studies published in international journals, in light of the lack of significant changes and the unwillingness to shift away from unsustainable tourism and management practices by the local and regional stakeholders, LAMAVE decided to place the work in Oslob on hold. The decline regionally is considered as likely to have lead to a decline in the Australian population that has not yet been documented. Established in 1964, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. However, these interactions can have ecosystem-level implications which need addressing in order to ensure their long-term sustainability. Photograph submissions of whale sharks encountered by tourists in the Philippines are helping LAMAVE researchers with whale shark research and conservation efforts – this type of collaboration is referred to as citizen science. Photographs of whale sharks submitted by the public and analysed by our team have helped document whale sharks moving between south Luzon, the Visayas, Mindanao and Palawan. The central differences between these two types involves their general behavior and diet. Recommendation. We started monitoring the whale sharks in Oslob in March 2012, and had researchers in the water daily gathering data until January 2020. The decline of global whale populations Blue whale populations have declined dramatically due to unregulated commercial whaling, putting them at risk of extinction. It appeared that the whale sharks were using the atolls of Tubbataha Reefs as a navigational reference. LAMAVE began studying whale sharks in Honda Bay, Palawan in 2016. LAMAVE’s position on emerging whale shark tourism in Bohol. Meekan, M., Austin, C.M., Tan, M.H., Wei, N.V., Miller, A., Pierce, S.J., Rowat, D., Stevens, G., Davies, T.K., Ponzo, A., & Gan, H.M. Frontiers in Marine Science, 2017, Undersea constellations: the gobal biology of an Endangered marine megavertebrate further informed through Citizen Science. Whale sharks can be identified by their unique spot pattern, similar to how humans can be identified by their fingerprints. Whale sharks in decline 12/07/2007 Fears that whale shark numbers are in decline have been confirmed even though a large number of countries have ceased harvesting the world's largest fish. Her health quickly declined, according to the statement. In the 1990s, an abrupt decline in the fish-eating southern resident population dropped to 75 whales from 98, prompting both Canada and the United States to list them as endangered. Understand the current population status in the Philippines, and the broader region. Whale shark mouths can contain over 300 rows of tiny teeth and 20 filter pads which it uses to filter feed. Collaborative efforts highlight the long-distance movements of whale sharks in the Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion. These findings build on current knowledge that whale sharks are moving between the Sulu and Sulawesi Seas - an area of special conservation interest with some of the world’s highest marine biodiversity. TSSC recommends that the list referred to in section 178 of the EPBC Act be amended by including in the list of vulnerable species: Rhincodon typus (Whale shark) The global population of the whale shark has decreased more than 50% in the last 75 years, resulting in its listing on the IUCN Red List as Endangered globally. Citizen science programmes in Sabah, Malaysia, have been actively collecting identification and presence data on whale sharks with one intriguing visitor in late 2019: a whale shark previously sighted in the south of Cebu, Philippines, was encountered at Pulau Sipadan, in Sabah, Malaysia. The town gained international publicity after the local government approved the feeding of whale sharks in the fishing Barangay of Tan-awan in 2012. The head is wide and flat with two small eyes at the front corners. The COP will conclude on February 22 with a Gandhinagar declaration. Undersea constellations: the gobal biology of an Endangered marine megavertebrate further informed through Citizen Science. The Indo-Pacific populations have decreased even more dramatically, with that subpopulation declining 63%. Our team is also investigating the impact of tourism on whale sharks and their habitats in order to identify sustainable models that can protect the species, the environment and the livelihoods of local communities. Whale sharks were targeted by fisheries in the Philippines into the late 1990s, after which time the species was nationally protected in 1998 through the Fisheries Administrative Order No. Whale sharks were targeted by fisheries in the Philippines into the late 1990s, after... OUR WORK. Following a successful exploratory trip in 2012 to confirm the presence of whale sharks in Panaon Island, LAMAVE established their base in Pintuyan in February the following year to study these animals. We started working with whale sharks to understand the human-shark interactions, and how these can be beneficial to local communities as well as for the species. Advised and supported the municipalities of Pinutyan and Liloan to draft and pass local ordinances to regulate and manage the tourism interactions in Sogod Bay. Araujo, G., Snow, S.J., So, C.L., Labaja, M.J.J., Murray, R., Colucci, A., & Ponzo, A.; Aquatic Conservation, 2016. Observations of microzooplankton in the vicinity of whale shark. Transient groups feed mainly on marine mammals, while resident pods eat mainly fish. Over-exploitation of whale sharks threatens the future of these wide-ranging pelagic fish. A guilty pleasure: Tourist perspectives on the ethics of feeding whale sharks in Oslob, Philippines, Applying the precautionary principle when feeding an endangered species for marine tourism, Ziegler, J.A, Silberg, J.N, Araujo, G., Labaja, J., Ponzo, A., Rollins, R., Dearden. The significant population expansion we found was indicated by both microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA. The population of whale sharks, one of the endangered migratory species, has declined by 63 per cent in last 75 years in the Indo-Pacific region, a nature conservation body has said while urging the government to intensify steps and train