IN THIS ISSUE

IMPORTANT!!

If you see a whale shark please report the sighting...

Every report is valuable and will help to  build a better picture of Seychelles whale shark population

Click Here for Details

NEWS FLASH

A SPOT2 Satellite tag deployed in early October was recovered by an octopus fisherman hunting along a reef off South Mahe. The tag had become entangled on coral when the shark passed by and had detached. Luckily the finder contacted MCSS to claim his reward and returned the tag in perfect working order... it will be re-deployed next season!

Please send us any comments or news for inclusion by clicking

A Shark Called Auger

MCSS recently received an interesting article and some photos from Mr. Ian Jones which I am sure will be of interest to our readers:

  “I really liked your web page, I'm hoping to possibly dive the Seychelles in October, although that depends, if not this year then guaranteed another. I used to live in Seychelles when I was a kid (1978-1980) and I've been meaning to return for years.

  Anyway, I'm writing to include a little bit of whale shark info that might be of interest to you. I work for Shell in the Gulf of Mexico. I heard about a whale shark off one of our platforms and looked into it. I love sharks!

We have a platform called "Auger", one time a whale shark turned up feeding around the platform (platforms teem with life, becoming artificial reefs rapidly), apparently some of the guys who run the fast rescue boat on the platform decided they needed a practice ;-) they lowered away and motored close to the shark, stopping a few yards away, the whale shark came right up to the boat to take a look, somebody up on the platform about 100ft up took some great photos. The whale shark has supposedly returned several times since and they've christened him "AUGER" the whale shark.

Auger cruising at the surface. Photo Steve Maximo

Ian did in fact came out to visit us this October and he and his sister Sue participated in several trips assisting the monitoring team; not only has he provided us with copies of his digital images for our Photo-ID database but also left a pair of Cressi Free-diving fins when David, whale shark tagger extraordinaire, managed to snap his keeping up with one of Seychelles more athletic young whale sharks!

Whale shark 'spotters' aboard the rescue boat with the Auger platform behind. Photo Steve Maximo

 Ian is also a qualified pilot and has offered his services to the project so we hope to see him and Sue again.

  If any of our readers have a short story or photos they would like to include please do send them through to us on our