IN THIS ISSUE

 Apologies ! 

Issue 5.4 has been enlarged to make up for this.

NOTICE BOARD

Whale Shark Sightings 
 Jul - Dec 2007

In-water Sightings
150 Reported sightings
267 in-water encounter
88 shark identified
73 shark sexed
(61 M, 12 F)

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  Global Conservation of Migratory Sharks a Step Closer

	The whale shark is one of three species of migratory sharks currently listed on the appendices of the CMS. Photo Chris Goodwin

The long awaited meeting to discuss conservation measures for Migratory Sharks under the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS) was held in Seychelles from December 11^th to 13^th 2007. This meeting of country representatives and their scientific advisors concluded that an agreement developed under the CMS would add value to current global shark conservation and management efforts, and that the proposed instrument be finalised at or before the 9th Conference of the Parties to CMS in December 2008.

This meeting was a direct response to the recommendation from the last conference of parties to develop some form of international agreement to conserve and manage sharks listed on the Appendices of the CMS, currently these are the basking shark, great white shark and the whale shark.

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The 2007 whale shark season in Seychelles was yet again another successful season and not without its share of surprises. The programme was once again sponsored by the Save Our Seas Foundation and run in coordination with the University Marine Biological Station Millport ( University of London ). One of the high points was the re-identification by the IRIS photo ID programme of a shark on the 11th of September 2007 that was originally tagged in October 2001, almost exactly six years later.

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Whale shark researcher Mark Meekan, from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), visited the MCSS whale shark programme in Seychelles this October. Mark was accompanied by his family, Carey McLean, a technician from AIMS, and a film crew from Big Wave TV Productions who were here to document the whole visit… with such a high profile group you could almost guarantee that the whale sharks would instantly get camera shy!

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Brad Norman, the founder of the EcOcean whale shark identification database was recently in Seychelles for the CMS Migratory Sharks meeting (see article this issue). Unfortunately, the CMS meeting was outside the whale shark monitoring season, which ends on October 30th and so while Brad was able to meet up with some of the MCSS team and talk whale sharks and photo identification, he didn’t get the opportunity to participate in the MCSS whale shark programme on this visit.

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The MCSS whale shark monitoring programme will be run slightly differently in 2008 with 6 internships being offered on a full-season basis. This is largely how the 2007 season operated, but in view of the large amount of data that is now being captured a more structured approach has become necessary. 

The internship programme will last for 10 weeks from 24th August to 31st October. The first week will be an orientation and training week, week two will hopefully be getting some practice whale shark trips and helping the pilots set up the micro-light aircraft.....

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