More exciting whale shark news to share! We submit all our photos of whale shark sightings to Ecocean and Shark Trust who manage photo identification databases. We have just been told that we have 2 new matches! 

The photos submitted of our whale shark sighting in the morning of 18th February confimed this to be a new whale shark to the database. This means no one had reported seeing it anywhere in the world before. This is actually quite common for the whale shark sightings we submit. This may be because we get a lot of juvenile whale sharks visiting Richelieu Rock & Surin Islands and so potentially they haven't been seen at dive sites before. Alternatively, it could be because very few individuals or organisations report their whale shark sightings and so opportunities to learn more about their migration patterns are lost.

Using similar technology to that used by NASA to identify constellations in the sky, Ecocean were able to use the unique patterns around the gills & primary dorsal fin to identify the individual whale shark we had seen. Through this photo identification software, it was confirmed that the whale shark we saw in the afternoon of 18th February was the same one as seen in the morning and the same one that was seen the next day, still at Richelieu. 

Now this may not seem like rocket science but so little is known about whale shark migration globally that everything piece of information helps to solve the puzzle. What we learnt from these & other sightings at Richelieu Rock & Surin Islands:

a) whale sharks in our area are typically juveniles 3m-4m in length, which may suggest that there is a whale shark breeding ground in the wider region

b) both males & females migrate through our waters, although we typically only see 1 whale shark at a time, suggesting that they are solitary travellers

c) whale sharks can stay to feed at Richelieu Rock & Surin Islands dive sites for at least 2-3 days at a time - they are not just swimming past

d) the only subseqent sighting outside of Surin National Park was at Lanta National Park, suggesting they may migrate through the Andaman Sea perhaps from Burma, through Surin National Park in North Andaman Sea down to Lanta National Park in the South Andaman Sea. 

Of all the whale sharks sightings we have submitted over the past 6 years, none have ever been seen anywhere else before we have reported them. Furthermore, subsequent sightings have only ever been in the Andaman Sea. What does this tell us? Perhaps they go into deep waters to breed or perhaps they migrate to dangerous waters around Sri Lanka & India where they are caught by unscrupulous fishing boats. We just do not know without further research.

So we would strongly encourage all individuals & organisations to submit all past & future photos of whale shark sightings to help build a better picture of whale shark migration patterns. Data & photos can be submitted to www.whaleshark.org and www.sharktrust.org

It only takes a few minutes to make a submission and it could provide another missing piece of the whale shark jigsaw, so please take the time to help solve the mystery about the largest fish in the world.