Last month,
the smallest free-swimming whale shark ever photographed
was spotted and by tourists during a dive in Manado,
Indonesia, reports FiNS on-line magazine
www.finsonline.com.
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Juvenile
whale shark off Bunaken, Indonesia. Photo Sharon
Austin (Courtesy FiNS) |
Visiting divers aboard the Nautica dive boat from Tasik Ria resort, Manado, sighted the young whale shark on a dive off the wall at Bunaken. The shark swam slowly up from the depths towards the divers who quickly identified it as a young whale
shark with an estimated length of only 1.5m.
Previously, the smallest whale shark reported was around 2.5m off Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. During the International Whale Shark Conference in Perth (May 2005) several other reports of very young or even new-born whale sharks were described, including the birth of two whale-shark pups witnessed by a dive-master off Djibouti; however, none had photographic proof of the sighting. The whale shark programme in Djibouti in January 2006 also recorded several very small sharks of down to 2.5m
(Marine Conservation News, January
2006).
Sharon Austin was one of the fortunate divers off the Nautica to witness the young shark and was able to photograph the youngster, dwarfed by a black stripped pilot fish. The young shark was apparently very curious swimming around the divers for nearly half an hour before swimming away. Of note it already bore a large deep scar on one side of its head, possibly a propeller cut or perhaps a bite mark from another shark.
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