Undersea Constellations: The Global Biology of an Endangered Marine Megavertebrate Further Informed through Citizen Science

The whale shark is an ideal flagship species for citizen science projects because of its charismatic nature, its size, and the associated ecotourism ventures focusing on the species at numerous coastal aggregation sites. An online database of whale shark encounters, identifying individuals on the basis of their unique skin patterning, captured almost 30,000 whale shark encounter reports from 1992 to 2014, with more than 6000 individuals identified from 54 countries. During this time, the number of known whale shark aggregation sites (hotspots) increased from 13 to 20. Examination of photo-identification data at a global scale revealed a skewed sex-ratio bias toward males (overall, more than 66%) and high site fidelity among individuals, with limited movements of sharks between neighboring countries but no records confirming large, ocean basin-scale migrations. Citizen science has been vital in amassing large spatial and temporal data sets to elucidate key aspects of whale shark life history and demographics and will continue to provide substantial long-term value.

 

BRADLEY M. NORMAN, JASON A. HOLMBERG, ZAVEN ARZOUMANIAN, SAMANTHA D. REYNOLDS, RORY P. WILSON, DANI ROB, SIMON J. PIERCE, ADRIAN C. GLEISS, RAFAEL DE LA PARRA, BEATRIZ GALVAN, DENI RAMIREZ-MACIAS, DAVID ROBINSON, STEVE FOX, RACHEL GRAHAM, DAVID ROWAT, MATTHEW POTENSKI, MARIE LEVINE, JENNIFER A. MCKINNEY, ERIC HOFFMAYER, ALISTAIR D. M. DOVE, ROBERT HUETER, ALESSANDRO PONZO, GONZALO ARAUJO, ELSON ACA, DAVID DAVID, RICHARD REES, ALAN DUNCAN, CHRISTOPH A. ROHNER, CLARE E. M. PREBBLE, ALEX HEARN, DAVID ACUNA, MICHAEL L. BERUMEN, ABRAHAM VÁZQUEZ, JONATHAN GREEN, STEFFEN S. BACH, JENNIFER V. SCHMIDT, STEPHEN J. BEATTY, AND DAVID L. MORGAN

Related Resources

Characterizing seasonal whale shark habitat in the western North Atlantic
There are significant knowledge gaps in the ecology of whale sharks Rhincodon typus beyond well-studied coastal aggregation sites....
READ MORE
Validation and otolith‐mass prediction of age and growth for cardinal snapper Pristipomoides macrophthalmus of the Caribbean Sea
Abstract Cardinal snapper Pristipomoides mac- rophthalmus is a commercially important, but com- monly misidentifed, deepwater species...
READ MORE
COVID-19 highlights the need to improve resilience and equity in managing smallscale fisheries
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of global and domestic seafood markets. We examined the main impacts and responses of...
READ MORE
1 2 3 18