Author: Minivan News

Dear Editor,

Although somewhat disappointed with the misinterpretation of the work being carried out by our research programme, the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP) would like to thank all for expressing their opinions and concerns. We would like to take this opportunity to address some of those here.

Because whale sharks spend so much of their lives far from our range of detecting and observing them, tagging and telemetry is a key tool for learning about the basic biology, movements, and habitat needs of these elusive animals. This information is critical for conserving, protecting and managing whale sharks and the various elements of the marine ecosystems that they travel through and feed and reproduce in. The objective of the project is to obtain and provide this information to the Maldivian government agencies that have authority for managing marine resources and to the Maldivian public, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders who have interests in using and maintaining vital marine ecosystems throughout the Maldives archipelago.

Preliminary results from the tagging program have emphasised the logic and importance of this approach. It has revealed that whale sharks that spend at least parts of their lives in the Maldives are highly mobile, travelling vast distances and sometimes into unprotected waters on the high seas and other states where they can be vulnerable to fishing and fining attempts.

A large part of the MWSRP’s tagging project is to monitor the behaviour of individual sharks before and after being tagged (both of tagged and untagged individuals). If there was any evidence that the tagging program was having either chronic or acute impacts on individual whale sharks or the group of whale sharks that occurs in Maldivian waters we would terminate it. There is no evidence of adverse effects to individual whale sharks or whale shark abundance owing to the tagging activities of the past two years. Indeed observations and systematic data indicate that there have not been any adverse effects.

Whale sharks have been routinely observed again by us, colleagues, tour boat operators, and resort dive operators within minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years after being tagged. Contrary to claims of some, we have not tagged any sharks at South Ari Atoll since May of 2009; in part to avoid the intense and busy tourist activity along Maamigili Reef in December and January.

The tagging is monitored by the government ministries who supply all relevant permits. All information received from the tags is readily shared within this collaboration. It has been and will continue to be frequently distributed to local dive centers, liveaboards, resorts, local islands and peer-reviewed forums.

In consideration of concerns from stakeholders, the MWSRP, in conjunction with the Government, is limiting (2009 -2010) the number of sharks tagged at Maamigili Reef and in the FenMaaDhiguRan Marine Protected Area. The MWSRP is working with colleagues elsewhere in the Maldives archipelago to tag sharks in other areas, and continuing an active outreach and education program with communities throughout the Maldives to inform them about whale sharks generally to objectively respond to questions and perceptions about tags, tagging methods, and findings.

In response to claims that whale shark abundance or encounters have declined in South Ari Atoll and claims that such declines have been caused by the tagging program, we would be interested and eager to review the data on which these claims are based and the methods that have been used to obtain those data. The MWSRP has encountered just over 20% more whale sharks in December 2009-January 2010 compared with December 2008-January 2009, including many sharks (tagged and untagged) observed during the past several years.

There are many possible reasons why whale sharks may aggregate in certain areas – spatially variable plankton blooms and patterns of local persistence of these whale shark prey are clearly important factors and have explained variability in the number, frequency, and location of whale shark sightings in South Ari Atoll and elsewhere

The whale shark research being conducted in ‘peak season’ (December 2009/January 2010) involves simply making photographs of whale sharks and observations of the sex, degree of scarring, and length of each shark (www.mwsrp.org/research).

The MWSRP invites any and all parties with concerns about ‘the methodology used in tagging’ to contact them. The tags and methods being used have been developed and tested to prevent adverse effects to individual whale sharks or their local abundance and have been subjected to public and government rigorous scrutiny in the United States, Australia, the Philippines and in Kenya where our collaborators have worked previously and are continuing studies in collaboration with other parties including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

We think that active and continued dialogue with all stakeholders is important for the communication of and response to claims and perceptions. Despite existing on very limited resources the MWSRP prides itself on dedicating a large proportion of its time actively engaging and working with local communities in South Ari Atoll and throughout the Maldives. Our ultimate objective is for the MWSRP to become managed and run by Maldivians.

Ongoing initiatives include giving regular presentations in the area about the whale shark research and conservation and conducting school trips to the whale shark aggregation area. Pupil exchanges between local schools and schools in Qatar and the UK have also been arranged for later this year.

The Adopt a shark scheme has been set up as a way of acknowledging donations to the charity. A visitor “adopting” a shark is not purchasing or taking ownership of an animal they are purely making a donation to the charity and in return the donors receive an update whenever their chosen shark is encountered. This is a common mechanism used by wildlife conservation charities worldwide as a way of raising awareness and funding for conservation initiatives for a variety of animals. The money raised using this mechanism is currently being used to set up a pupil exchange programme with schools within the FenMaaDhiguran MPA and schools in Qatar and the UK.

As for the commercialization concerns we would like to emphasise that we are a registered non-profit charity and all MWSRP researchers are unpaid volunteers. The support we gratefully receive from the Conrad Maldives is in-kind and extends to a vessel and accommodation. In return we train and assist local excursion guides in conducting whale shark tours two days a week. This gives us a valuable insight into the experiences of tour operators and guests alike and gives us further opportunity to educate both parties about whale shark encounter best practice.

We hope this list of points goes someway to addressing some of the concerns expressed recently in Minivan news and the Bluepeace blog. We welcome all further questions. Please email [email protected].

Respectfully,

The MWSRP team

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