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Whale shark
sightings have been slow so far this season and the
occurrence of the sharks has been quite different from
previous years.
During the current season, the MCSS microlight has been
flying two daily aerial surveys around Mahe in search of
whale sharks, subject to weather conditions. Since August
the majority of the sightings have been in the far South
of Mahe with very few sightings being recorded in other
areas.
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MCSS
Aerial sightings from July to September 2004
Key:
few , some, many whale sharks sighted in
this area
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A few
sharks have been seen on the West and North West coast of
Mahe but the unusual weather pattern seems to be affecting
the distribution of plankton and consequently the
occurrence of sharks. Recent sighting results confirm that
the greatest concentration of sharks remains in the South
but it is expected that this will start to spread out
further to the North and around the rest of the inner
islands once the South Easterly winds start to subside.
Another unusual result from the in-water sightings to date
is that very few sharks have been seen this year that were
tagged in previous seasons. Over the last two years
between 13 - 26% of the sharks tagged in the
previous season were seen again the following year.
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