The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 10: January 1998
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Whale shark tagging, South Africa and Seychelles
Whale shark Rhincodon typus and diver during tagging week in the Seychelles, November 1996.
Photo: © Lawson Wood.
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The most recent report on the Shark Research Institute's (SA) whale
shark tagging programme covers the two years from May 1995 to April
1997. During this period, a further 125 whale sharks were tagged, 109
off the coastline of southern Mozambique (28 of these within one 48-
hour period) and 16 off the coastline of northern KwaZulu/Natal. A
total of 158 sharks have been tagged since the start of the SRI
programme in December 1993. There have been ten re-sightings of
tagged sharks, all within days or no more than a month after tagging,
and all within 7 km of their original tagging location.
This successful record has been considerably assisted by the
acquisition of a microlight by the project. Many aerial surveys have
taken place, recording cetaceans and turtles as well as elasmobranchs,
noting daily onshore and offshore movements of whale sharks, and
helping the tagging teams to locate sharks for tagging.
There are plans to attach a satellite tag onto a whale shark during
the 1997/98 season, following a practice run with a dummy tag.
The SRI whale shark project assisted in the establishment of a
tagging operation in the Seychelles in November 1996. Twenty-three
whale sharks were tagged over a seven-day period in collaboration
with the Seychelles Underwater Centre.
The project's public awareness and educational programme has
been extended with the introduction of experimental "whale shark
weekends" in association with local dive tour operators in southern
Mozambique. This enables divers to swim with the whale shark after
it has been tagged by a member of the project team. Demand for
participation in these weekends is extremely high. Divers are also
offered the opportunity to 'adopt' a whale shark, with income from
adoption fees being used to finance further research.
The project also monitors whale shark strandings and collects
tissue samples.
For more information contact Andrew Gifford,
Shark Research Institute, P.O. Box 510, Botha's Hill,
Natal 3660, South Africa. Tel/fax: (031) 701 9842
or visit the SRI web page: http://www.sharks.org
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