April, 2017
Update on the whale shark data collected by our tags. Provided to Save the Blue by Dr. Mark Erdmann.
158580 Kodo: Kodo continues to amaze! As I noted previously, he made an epic journey up to Mindanao in the Philippines, down to Kei Islands, then down to Merauke off the swamps of south Papua, where he remained for a LONG time. By February he had moved north to Kaimana, remained there for quite some time, and most recently he’s been transmitting from the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia! He’s our first shark to hit 3 countries (Indonesia, Philippines and Australia)! As I mentioned previously, he broke his depth gauge unfortunately, but his movement data is spectacular. Hoping he comes back to Cendrawasih eventually so we can get that tag off and download!
158581 Ke’Opulupulu: I’m delighted to say he’s reappeared! As I mentioned previously, he had stopped sending location data as of October 2016. However, in late February he suddenly started pinging again, and now we are getting regular location data from him again! Interestingly, he’s headed back out of the bay and is hanging out SE of Biak, same area as he went to last March/April! Very cool to see him repeating a behaviour - this is a huge benefit of having data that spans more than a year - we can see if behaviours are cyclical. Max depth still 625m.
158582 Pongo: Pongo has been a "Cendrawasih homebody” for the entire length of his deployment - never leaving the bay. Interestingly, Pongo’s tag (which also had stopped sending data in October 2016) has recently been pinging us again too. Unfortunately it has not yet successfully sent any new data, but we can see that the tag is trying to ping. This is great news in that it tells me the tag is still “alive” and recording data - and I’m hopeful that we will be able to find Pongo during our big expedition to Cendrawasih in late July/early August and recover and download his tag. Max depth still 768m.
158584 Merlin: As noted in my last update, Merlin has been another "Cendrawasih homebody” just like Pongo. Max depth still 360m.
158581 Ke’Opulupulu: I’m delighted to say he’s reappeared! As I mentioned previously, he had stopped sending location data as of October 2016. However, in late February he suddenly started pinging again, and now we are getting regular location data from him again! Interestingly, he’s headed back out of the bay and is hanging out SE of Biak, same area as he went to last March/April! Very cool to see him repeating a behaviour - this is a huge benefit of having data that spans more than a year - we can see if behaviours are cyclical. Max depth still 625m.
158582 Pongo: Pongo has been a "Cendrawasih homebody” for the entire length of his deployment - never leaving the bay. Interestingly, Pongo’s tag (which also had stopped sending data in October 2016) has recently been pinging us again too. Unfortunately it has not yet successfully sent any new data, but we can see that the tag is trying to ping. This is great news in that it tells me the tag is still “alive” and recording data - and I’m hopeful that we will be able to find Pongo during our big expedition to Cendrawasih in late July/early August and recover and download his tag. Max depth still 768m.
158584 Merlin: As noted in my last update, Merlin has been another "Cendrawasih homebody” just like Pongo. Max depth still 360m.