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Juvenile
whale shark feeding, Djibouti. Photo Simon
Rogerson, Dive Magazine |
The long awaited whale shark forum has now been set up. The idea for the forum was agreed at the International Whale Shark Conference in Perth, in May 2005, but pressure of work meant that the project was delayed in its implementation.
The project was brought to fruition by Brad Norman and the EcOcean team and while it currently has few members, it is hoped that all those interested in whale sharks and whale shark research will join in and make this forum the valuable tool that it should indeed be.
The forum is open to anyone, just click on this link,
and will hopefully stimulate some debate on many issues.
Some interesting threads running at the moment include comments about the whale shark fishery in Taiwan. It is currently believed that the Taiwanese fishery accounts for the majority of whale shark (or tofu shark as it is called in China) harvest world-wide. However Scott Stevens, who did his
MSc dissertation with the National Taiwan Ocean University on "Taiwan Fisheries in the South China Sea", feels that this is not the case. The catch quota for the Tofu shark 80 Four years ago (but was never achieved), now the catch is at 20 and not thought of as a worthwhile pursuit. He feels that the majority of whale shark catches are made outside of Taiwan and sold to Japan and Western Countries through loopholes in international legislation, Taiwan is not recognised as a country (being a part of the Republic of China) and is thus not subject to CITES and similar commitments.
Another potential thread is the projected 'Captive breeding programme' purported to be the basis of the recent
installation of two more whale sharks in Georgia State Aquarium, details in this issue of Sagren. Perhaps those interested might like to take this up as a discussion thread on the forum?
The Whale Shark Forum is a potentially valuable resource for both general interest and also those working with whale sharks in any aspect, we hope that it will allow participants to benefit from the experience of others and promote a wider knowledge about this, the largest living shark.
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