Scientists followed the movements
of a whale shark for nearly two and a half years as she swam more than 20,000
kilometers (over 12,000 miles) from the coast of Central America to the
Marianas Trench near Asia.
Whale sharks, whose numbers have
dropped by more than half in the past 75 years according to the IUCN, are taken
by fishing boats for their fins, cartilage, meat and teeth, and studies have
shown that boats bringing tourists to swim with the largest fish in the ocean
change the species’ behavior.
Given these threats, scientists
hope studies such as this one will help guide conservation policy aimed at
protecting these animals throughout their migrations.
A team of scientists has tracked
a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) across more than 20,000 kilometers (over 12,000
miles) of ocean, the longest migration ever recorded for the species.
In 2011, the researchers attached
a transmitting tag to a shark they named “Anne” in the Pacific Ocean near
Panama’s Coiba Island. Over the next 841 days, Anne’s transmitter would
ping the ARGOS
satellite whenever she swam near the surface. Those data points allowed
the team to follow her movements south to the Galapagos Islands and clear
across the Pacific to the Marianas Trench south of Japan and east of the
Philippines — a distance of 20,142 kilometers (12,516 miles).
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