Date: November 29, 2017
Source: Georgia Aquarium
Vital scientific information
about whale shark behavior, biology and ecology is being uncovered by an
unlikely source -- ecotourists and other citizens. Thanks to modern
advancements in technology and the burgeoning field of "citizen
science," new information about gregarious and mysterious whale sharks is
being revealed in a study slated to publish on November 29 in BioScience.
Whale shark habitat spans the
globe, making long-term research over wide geographic ranges a difficult
challenge for whale shark researchers. To address this challenge, researchers
harnessed modern technology, creating an online photo database called Wildbook
for Whale Sharks and enlisted the help of ecotourists and citizens across the
globe to upload any images of whale sharks they happened to see or encounter
anywhere in the world. Photos of nearly 30,000 encounters representing 6,000
individually-identified sharks across 54 countries over 22 years has given
scientists a rich data set to analyze and better understand the nature of this
endangered species that has long been misunderstood and understudied.
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