Trace Elements in Tissues of Whale Sharks (Rhincodon typus) Stranded in the Gulf of California, Mexico

Habitat suitability ofRhincodon typusin three localities of the Gulf of California: Environmental drivers of seasonal aggregations

“…Records were obtained from biological data repositories (http://gbif.org, http://obis.org) and published scientific literature. Sightings from scientific surveys were reported between 1996 and 2018 for BLA (Nelson & Eckert, 2007; Peregrín Tovar, 2014) and BLP (Fossi et al ., 2017; Ketchum et al ., 2013; Pancaldi et al ., 2019; Whitehead et al ., 2019b), while occurrence records from NAY were obtained during the period 2013–2019 (Ramírez‐Macías et al ., 2015, 2016; Whitehead, unpublished data). These records were obtained during multiple scientific or tourist surveys, in which a standardization according to the sampling effort was not possible, thus the records of occurrence were driven by the different sampling efforts in known distribution areas.…”

Bioacumulación de sustancias contaminantes en tiburón ballena, Rhincodon typus, en el Golfo de California

“…En 2017 y 2018 dos tiburones ballena vararon en la playa, uno en Punta Bufeo, Baja California, y el otro en laguna de La Paz, Baja California Sur (Figura 5). Con base en muestras de estos tiburones muertos se pudo comprobar que no solo la epidermis sino también otros tejidos, incluyendo músculo, hígado, cerebro, corazón, riñones, testículos, branquias y estómago, acumulan sustancias contaminantes (Pancaldi et al 2019a).…”

Trace elements in the whale shark Rhincodon typus liver: an indicator of the health status of the ecosystem base (plankton)

“…It is a long-lived animal with a life span of more than 100 years; additionally, it is an opportunistic filter-feeding shark (Colman 1997). Feeding aggregations in the Gulf of California show that whale sharks prey mostly on zooplankton patches that are rich in copepods (Nelson & Eckert 2007), euphausiids (Ketchum et al 2013), and chaetognaths (Pancaldi et al 2019b). Studies on trace elements bioaccumulation in this species are scarce and show that whale sharks accumulate arsenic As, Hg, Cd, copper Cu, lead Pb, selenium, and zinc Zn in the liver (Wang et al 2015, Pancaldi et al 2019a).…”