“Maximize Results, Minimize Interference”
The Utila Whale Shark Research Project uses “best practice” methods and cutting-edge tools to conduct its work in a safe and scientifically valuable manner also combining studies with Mexico, Belize, and the USA to collaborate and successfully work together for the same end, protection and research.
Protection of our sharks and our divers is our highest priority.
With a primary focus on photo-identification, our project permits our researchers, our divers, and our boats to maintain a safe and non-invasive distance from our sharks and from other boats and divers while collecting valuable data. This approach minimizes the risk of “trap response” and allows for longer in-water encounters with our whale sharks. In addition, enforcing a safe interaction distance protects the local dive tourism industry and the value of each whale shark to it. Physical contact with our sharks is not permitted, and our divers are not allowed within three meters of any shark, and from that distance or even much further away is is easily possible to get photos and video that will help the research.
This is a very important project to us, the world of whale sharks and whale shark research, we have done more and achieved more results than anyone else in this area and wish to carry on doing so with the help of all those that have been involved, do you realize the photo you take of a whale shark could be the most exciting thing that has happened in the whale shark world?
Good science requires consistent data collection, qualified analysts, and peer review
With the assistance of WildMe.org (formally Ecocean) in training material development and local workshops, our staff and divers are methodically collecting photographs and using the WildMe software to identify each of the whale sharks that visit Utila. These photographs and the data collected with them (size, location, sex, etc.) are the basic units of mark-recapture needed to model and better understand the population dynamics of our whale sharks. Our data is collected systematically season after season and made available to other researchers participating in the WildMe library. With their help, have published the results of our five-year study in a peer-reviewed scientific journal which can be downloaded from this site…
WildMe has enabled us to collaborate with other countries and assist with their research, we have records of whale sharks in Utila visiting other countries in the Caribbean such as Belize and Mexico and further into the Gulf of Mexico to the cost of Florida.
Methodology
The emphasis of our project is on photo-identification, and our staff and visiting divers are trained in proper data collection techniques, including how to photograph a whale shark for computer-aided identification. All data collected in our project is entered into the WildMe.org Whale Shark Photo-identification Library. By promptly adding our data to the WildMe.org Library, we emphasize transparency in our work and are ensuring that:
- Collected data is visible to researchers worldwide as well as to local conservation efforts in Utila.
- Data is collected in a manner consistent with other whale shark research projects, such as far away Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, Indonesia and other countries in the Far East, Indian Ocean and the Indian Ocean Islands to the Pacific and its islands, the Red Sea, Atlantic and Caribbean to name just a few. By collecting data in an identical manner, our research can feed into global studies and international efforts toward whale shark conservation.
- Participants in our research remain connected to their whale sharks and are informed of our progress through the automated email system of the WildMe.org Library. By submitting photographs, divers in our project can receive an email if their shark is identified and each time it is subsequently sighted.
- We have also through collaboration deployed Satellite, Acoustic and visual ID tags again showing movement between countries, this will give us some extra information such as depth and temperature that the whale sharks frequent.
During the period of research we incorporated acoustic and satellite tagging of identified sharks into our research. The questions that we are trying to answer in conjunction with other countries are::
- Do male and female whale sharks travel the same routes to and from Utila?
- Do like size whale sharks travel the same routes?
- Do our sharks travel one or multiple feeding routes over the course of their lives?
- Are our whale sharks closely related to other known populations?
Periodically throughout each year, our data is audited by WildMe.org to ensure its quality, and yearly workshops in Utila ensure that the latest tools are available to us.
The Utila Whale Shark Research Project uses “best practice” methods and cutting-edge tools to conduct its work in a safe and scientifically valuable manner also combining studies with Mexico, Belize, and the USA to collaborate and successfully work together for the same end, protection and research.
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