Lots of Whale Shark News

2013 Seychelles Whale Shark Monitoring Programme

The dates for the 2013 Seychelles internship programme have now been confirmed, the core internship programme will last for 8 weeks from Monday 26th August to Sunday 20th October. The first week will be an orientation and training week, week two will be getting some practice whale shark trips and helping the pilots set up the micro-light aircraft, and as of week three the monitoring activities proper will be implemented. Additionally, there will be an additional two ‘Bonus’ weeks from October 21st to November 3rd that will be run if there are still whale sharks around at this time.

Snorkellers following 2 feeding sharks as seen by interns from our microlight aircraft

We take 6 interns on the programme each year and there are still a few internship places available; please visit our web page for further details and to download application forms.

3rd International Whale Shark Conference 

The dates and venue for the 3^rd International Whale Shark Conference have been announced; the conference will take place at the Atlanta Aquarium, Georgia, USA on October 6-10^th 2013. Please visit the official web site for full details of the programme and activities. The closing date for ‘Early Bird’ registration is May 31^st so you need to hurry to get the reduced price, and closing date for abstract submission is July 1st.

2014 Djibouti Whale Shark Monitoring Programme

This is now an annual expedition to continue the work that MCSS helped implement in 2006, when this aggregation of whale shark was first scientifically documented, and has continued very successfully every January since 2009. 

Due to popular demand, the 2014 Djibouti whale shark monitoring programme will take place over four weeks in January instead of the usual three weeks. There will be four seven day departures aboard the MV Deli starting each Saturday  so 4-10^th, 11-17^th, 18-24^th and 25-31^st of January 2014. Final costs are still being confirmed but interested parties should visit the Djibouti page on our web site for further details which will be posted there as soon as possible.

Last But Not Least... Our Web Site & Facebook Page

A long overdue revamp of our web site has just been completed; the site now includes details of all the current MCSS programmes and projects as well as information about MCSS and also ways in which you can help… Please feel free to drop by and visit on www.mcss.sc . Project Coordinator Georgia French is looking after a Facebook page to help keep people up to date with our activities, do drop by and Like us!