Multi-year patterns in scarring, survival and residency of whale sharks in Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia

Satellite Tagging and Photographic Identification Reveal Connectivity Between Two UNESCO World Heritage Areas for Reef Manta Rays

“…Ship strike is a threat to many megafaunal species, including M. alfredi, and given the species' behavioural preference of occupancy of the upper 20 m of the water column (Jaine et al, 2014, Peel, 2019 and the increasing boat traffic in regions adjacent to the Ningaloo WHA (see Bejder et al, 2019), it is perhaps unsurprising that ship strike injuries have come to recent attention. In the Ningaloo Reef WHA, there have been recent graphic examples of damage to M. alfredi from vessel strike, the rate of which is likely underestimated (McGregor et al, 2019), while for R. typus, the proportion of the population detected bearing injuries consistent with ship strike is increasing (Speed et al, 2008;Lester et al, 2020). As M. alfredi has a naturally low rate of potential population growth, an increase in the rate of injury or mortality due ship strike is concerning, and therefore implementation of hazard mitigation strategies for core use areas should be considered.…”

Asymptotic Growth of Whale Sharks Suggests Sex-Specific Life-History Strategies

“…Vertical movements in the warm, well-mixed water column on the shelf of Ningaloo Reef do not impose this metabolic cost. In contrast, the slower growth rates of females may be maintained irrespective of the cost of feeding in the deep scattering layer during the day, without the need to inhabit coastal waters where there may be a heightened risk of predation (Fitzpatrick et al, 2006;Lester et al, 2020) and/or harassment of immature females by larger males for mating. For females, very large maximum body sizes could be advantageous given the potential need to provision and brood a multitude of pups-up to 300 at one time (Joung et al, 1996).…”

St. Helena: An Important Reproductive Habitat for Whale Sharks (Rhincodon typus) in the Central South Atlantic

“…The estimated apparent survival was high given the inferred transience within this population. However, it is similar to that observed in Donsol (0.78 year −1 , McCoy et al, 2018), Southern Leyte (0.74 year −1 , Araujo et al, 2017), or among nonscarred individuals at Ningaloo Reef (Australia) as estimated through different methods (0.82 year −1 , Lester et al, 2020), and contrasting with that observed in Tanzania (0.97 year −1 , Prebble et al, 2018) or scarred individuals at Ningaloo Reef (0.88 year −1 , Lester et al, 2020). However, this could be attributed to the lack of the model's ability to distinguish mortality from permanent emigration (Holmberg et al, 2008).…”