Sammy Is Free… At Last!

Sammy the whale shark has finally been released from the Atlantis hotel aquarium in Dubai.

The juvenile whale shark was ‘rescued’ on August 20th 2008 when she was found 'struggling in shallow water'. The hotel say that the shark was put in the aquarium for "medical care and observation" and that they would release her, but that release has been a very long time in coming.

In the intervening 19 months of captivity there has been a huge outcry from the public living in the region and from outside with a “Free Sammy” campaign on FaceBook and numerous articles written about the situation in local newspapers and featured on this blog.

It was somewhat ironic that the first Arabian Whale Shark Research Programme conference was held in Dubai in December last year, but Sammy still languished in captivity.

While Sammy’s ‘rescue’ and ‘recuperation’ at Atlantis was marked with great publicity and encouraged a constant stream of visitors to the hotel, her release was done with a significant lack of publicity, in an almost clandestine manner. None of the media or environmental community had been notified or were on hand to see the shark released and no pictures of her release have been published.

Sammy photographed in December 2009 with her pack of Cobais in constant attendance, and in close up her damaged and deteriorating lower caudal fin

Steve Kaiser, curator of the Atlantis exhibit told local media that Atlantis were pleased to be a part of research into this species and that Sammy would be tracked through a tagging programme to provide further information for the research community.

So let us hope that this is at last a happy ending to the story of Sammy the whale shark, and that she was not released due the catastrophic publicity her death in the tank at Atlantis would have caused. We look forward to seeing Atlantis publicise her location and movements over the coming months….

Migratory Sharks MoU Now In Force

The Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Migratory Sharks under the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS) came into force on the 1st of March 2010, marking the successful outcome of three years of hard work for many people.

The final form and text of the MoU was agreed during the Sharks III meeting held in Manila, Philippines between the 8-12 February, and was the third meeting held between member states of the CMS and interested parties to develop an international instrument to conserve migratory sharks.

Heated discussions during the drafting of the text at Sharks III

This process started in November 2005 when Seychelles, Australia and New Zealand proposed that an instrument should be developed at the eighth Council of Parties (COP) in Kenya. The first meeting, Sharks I was held in Seychelles in 2007 and saw the ground work laid for further development basing its work on the listed shark species in Appendix 1 & 2, the whale shark, basking shark and great white shark. It was hoped that this would be finalised at the next COP (COP 9 Rome December 2008) but progress had not been sufficient and a second dedicated meeting was held immediately after the COP.

However, at COP 9 the shortfin and longfin mako sharks, porbeagle shark and the spiny dogfish (northern hemisphere) were all added to Appendix II, thus adding species which were commercially harvested to this appendix and consequently potential species for the Migratory Sharks agreement.

Sharks II thus now had some new challenges to face with the addition of these new species. The primary aim of this meeting was to decide if this should be a legally binding ‘Agreement’ on a non-legally binding Memorandum of Understanding; it was agreed that this should be an MoU.

This brings us to Sharks III where the debates were long and at time heated. There were actually two elements that required much discussion: firstly whether the ‘new’ sharks species should be considered in the MoU, and secondly, the development of the Conservation and Management Plan (CMP).

After some very long debates the consensus was to include all seven currently listed species, but not to have automatic inclusion if new sharks were listed on the Appendices of CMS. This decision will thus enabled signatories to the MoU the possibility to choose species that are not listed on the CMS Appendices.

Delegates from Seychelles and Mauritius discuss the text at Sharks III

As ten countries were prepared to sign the MoU at the end of the meeting, this meant that the instrument would come into force on the first day of the following month, March 1st 2010. The Memorandum is now open to signing by any country that so wishes and will hopefully herald a new era in the conservation of this ocean ranging sharks.

Eco-course in Whale Shark Ecology and Monitoring

MCSS are pleased to announce the launch of their first formal public courses on their signature species, the whale shark. These five day courses are aimed at giving people with an interest in the world’s largest living shark the opportunity to learn more about its ecology and biology as well as some of the standard techniques used in monitoring them.

The courses are organised by leading whale shark researcher Dr. David Rowat and will include five mornings of presentations, tutorials and workshops with four afternoons spent putting the theory into practise with the MCSS whale shark monitoring programme and meeting these sharks up close and personal! The programme has been set up by MCSS using the services of local hotels, boat/dive operators and ground handlers so that all participants have to do is sign-up and the rest will be taken care of!

A standard six night package has been organised that includes accommodation at a local hotel on bed and breakfast basis, airport-hotel-airport transfers, the whale shark course and four monitoring trips from Euro 1575 per person sharing.

Three courses are planned this coming whale shark season for a maximum of seven persons per course:

September 20th – September 24th
September 27th – October 1st
October 18th – October 23rd

In addition, extensions of the programme are available to extend your stay with a week’s diving or a learn-to-dive package with MCSS supporting partner the Underwater Centre.

Full details of the standard package and some of the extension options are available from the MCSS web site.

Whale Shark Finned!!

Shocking news came this week from WWF in the Philippines about the finning of a whale shark; finning is the practise of cutting of the fins from a live shark and then throwing the mutilated but live carcass back into the sea. Generally this is done with small pack or reef sharks but now the practise has spread to the world’s largest shark the whale shark.

On February 15th divers from Acacia Dive Resort, Mabini, found a 5.5 m badly mutilated but still alive whale shark floating belly-up amidst the rough waters off Bahay Kambin, Tingloy, Southern Philippines. Both dorsal fins and both pectoral fins had been cut off and there were numerous gashes around its tail fin indicating that an attempt had been made to cut its tail off as well.

The shark was towed to calmer waters in nearby Caban Cove, where efforts were made to support the shark on a net strung between a bamboo frame, to stop it from rolling over onto its back; however, the shark was very weak and it died that night as a result of its injuries.

For several days fishing boats equipped with powerful flood lights - reportedly from Lemery, Batangas - had been operating in Mabini waters, but had left after police moved them on after complaints from local resorts. Several nights later the fishermen returned, this time in the adjacent municipality of Tingloy. This time they were not moved on the area was under Tingloy’s jurisdiction not Mabini’s. The fishing went on until concerned divers informed Mabini of the grisly discovery.

Filipinos hunted whale sharks for decades in the waters off Bohol, Misamis Oriental and Sorsogon. Shark fins and meat were exported to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But declining numbers and a cooperative campaign saw an end to the killing with legal protection for the species in the Philippines in1998.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Director Malcolm Sarmiento said a full investigation will be conducted to find and prosecute the culprits. Sarmiento has committed BFAR’s support until a better enforcement strategy can be developed between the twin towns of Mabini and Tingloy.

WWF-Philippines and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), have also announce a reward of P100,000 to any person who provides information leading to the identification and arrest of the parties involved in the mutilation and de-finning of the Tingloy whale shark.

This tragic incident was all the more poignant as it came right after the conclusion of the Sharks III meeting held in Manila from 8 to 12 February, which was the third meeting to develop a global agreement on the conservation and management of Migratory Sharks under the Convention on Migratory Species….. more on this in a coming post.

Our thanks to WWF Philippines for the information used in this report

Seychelles Satellite Pop-up Tags Set New Records

During the 2009 monitoring programme two Pop-up Satellite Archival Tags (PATs) were deployed on whale sharks in Seychelles and we are happy to report that both have detached pretty much on schedule!

The first of these was attached on the afternoon of October 9th to a female shark of 5.5m off Bay Lazare which had been swimming quite happily with the monitoring team for 29 minutes.

Poppy one of very few female whale sharks in 2009, photo Torri Kentner

She was swimming slowly and showed no reaction to tagging. This was the first female shark tagged with a satellite tag in Seychelles and so we were keen to see if she behaved differently to the other sharks previously tagged here. Because she was a girl with a pop-up tag she was immediately named Poppy by the team and has drawn a lot of interest as so few female sharks were found last year.

Poppy being tagged by David, photo Torri Kentner

Poppy's tag came off on January 10th at around 13°S 54°E about 400 kilometres off the East coat of Madagascar well South of Seychelles; this is the second time a Seychelles tag has been recorded from this area.

The start and pop up location for Poppy's tag, red dots show tag drift after release. Map courtesy Maptool at www.seaturtle.org

During the course of the 94 days of deployment Poppy dived to a maximum depth of 1304 metres an new record for the Indian Ocean (the I.O. deepest dive to date was 1286m) where her tag recorded a minimum temperature of just 4.6°C!

The second shark tagged was a large (8.5m) male shark named Chompy who was tagged on the 21st of October off Anse Capucin, South Mahe.

Chompy a large male whale shark missing part of his left gill covers, photo Luke Riley

Chompy had been so named because he was missing the gill cover to the 4th & 5th gill slits on the left side, probably chomped as the result of an argument with a boat propeller.

Chompy with his PAT tag safely attached, photo Ciara McCarten

Chompy's tag came off on the 17th of January at 4.6°S 55.8°E to the East of Mahe and South of Frigate on the Seychelles plateau, although no whale sharks have been seen around Mahe for a while now.

The data from his tag shows that there have been several days during the deployment where depths in excess of 300 metres have been recorded indicating that he had in fact left the Seychelles plateau and returned here again on several occasions.

The start and pop up location for Chompy's tag, blue dots show tag drift after release. Map courtesy Maptool at www.seaturtle.org

The data from these tags has not yet been fully analysed and we are sure they will provide further valuable information on the life of these giant sharks.

Dispatches from Djibouti #7: The end of the expedition

Seeming all too quickly, the 2010 Djibouti Whale Shark Expedition was coming to an end, two weeks of intense whale shark activity but a lot of fun as well. The last night aboard was a celebratory affair as always, with the activities being recorded by a seemingly robotic camera that ‘Mr. Gadget’ Hussain had unleashed for the evening.

The team on the last night aboard Deli captured by Mr. Gadget's robotic camera...

The following morning was a bit more subdued but everybody pitched in for the final whale shark session and were rewarded with a real flurry of sharks, many of which were ram-feeding to the delight of the photographers.

Ram feeding shark on the last morning, photo Hussain

There were however some reminders about the vulnerability of this aggregation as one particular shark displayed a series of fifteen propeller cuts along his right side.... this group of sharks is known to exhibit more scars than are found in any other known aggregation and remains a great concern to its long term viability.

A nasty set of propellor cuts was a reminder of these sharks vulnerability, photo Luis

The morning session completed, everyone set to the task of packing their gear away for the trip back to Djibouti. One final group photo on the front deck of Deli brought together the whole week two team, the crew and the expedition’s supporters from Djibouti and then it was time to leave.

Boarding the ‘magic bus’ which transferred us to the hotel signalled not only a return to land, which felt pretty strange to a lot of people, but also the start of a little post expedition trip to Lac Assal, apparently the lowest lake on the planet.

This allowed people to put the area of the expedition into a bit more of a geographical context as the bus trip across the rugged, parched mountains took us past deep ravines to the shores of the Ghoubet with its remarkable volcanic plugs and lava flows, where we had been working just a few days before.

Following the great rift further inland we first stopped at one of many fumeroles where the hot sulphurous air escaped from the earth’s core below, before we arrived at the great salt perimeter of Lac Assal.

Abi & Laetitia peer into a fumerole....not sure about the wisdom of sticking you head into a volcanic vent but there you go...

Here local artisan’s scour the area for geodes and Gypsum and salt crystals to sell to the few visitors that make it to this remote area.... they also do a nice line in salt encrusted goat and antelope skulls if you’re into that sort of thing! Not sure how well that would look on a mantle-piece in London!

Salt crystal skulls anyone?

And then it was done... The 2010 Djibouti Whale Shark Expedition was over . For the next few days the group waving farewell at the hotel got smaller and smaller as the participants flew off to their homes or next adventures, from Paris to Bangkok, Manchester to Seychelles, Mauritius to Kuwait and a whole list of places in between...

Meanwhile plans are already being made for Djibouti 2011..... What are you going to be doing for the first two weeks of January 2011.... fancy checking out a few whale sharks?

Dispatches from Djibouti #6: Separators week 2

For the new volunteers joining in week two, the concept of separators (see previous post) had to be instilled and so their early shots provide a nice introduction to the new arrivals, as with this shot of Abi and Warren on the way to their first encounter of the week, photo by Luis.

Abi captured this shot of Marylene in a rather composed mood on the way to her first encounter:

While second Djibouti expeditioners Luis and Flora knew well what to expect and posed for this between drop shot by Michel....

Newcomers Dareen and Christine also seemed remarkably calm.... why does Michel only take separators with girls in?

As week two rolled on those that had been on the boat for the previous week were beginning to get pretty well versed with this ‘separator’ business and so some of the shots were becoming quite novel, as in this shot of an inquisitive helicopter checking out one of the tenders by Hussain.

Self-portraits also came more into the fore as separators... Hussain by Hussain!

Although he also captured the serious work going on as Perry from IFAW Germany checks how Abi is doing with the recording of his encounter, photo Hussain.

Even odd marine life became the subject of separators.... in fact swimming crabs became a bit of a obstacle course at some times...