Blueberry's Journey
September, 2017: Blueberry was tagged just off the coast of the island of Sembawa! This is extra exciting, since Blueberry is the first female whale shark to ever have be tagged with the new fin-mounted tags! Currently, no one knows where the female whale sharks go to breed or give birth, and tagging female whale sharks will hopefully give us some insight into female behavioral patterns! We're so excited to follow Blueberry for the next few years!
From Abam, who tagged Bruce and Blueberry: She’s a 5.16m female shark and tagged with tag 168183. We caught Blueberry shortly after we released Bruce, but due to the over excitement for the possibility of catching and tagging our first ever female shark, I didn’t manage to take a genetic sample and some photos of Bruce. But in return, we got Blueberry! I’m SUPER excited to be able to tag Blueberry, and really curious seeing her movement. From our previous experience in Papua, female whale sharks used to behave quite different to the males. Usually they keep their distance when around the bagan by swimming around in a relatively deeper water and rarely came up to the surface to feed on the baitfish. But I got to tell you, Blueberry is quite an outgoing and social gal! we frequently saw her around the bagan with the other male sharks, swimming close to the surface and feeding on the small shrimps.
From Abam, who tagged Bruce and Blueberry: She’s a 5.16m female shark and tagged with tag 168183. We caught Blueberry shortly after we released Bruce, but due to the over excitement for the possibility of catching and tagging our first ever female shark, I didn’t manage to take a genetic sample and some photos of Bruce. But in return, we got Blueberry! I’m SUPER excited to be able to tag Blueberry, and really curious seeing her movement. From our previous experience in Papua, female whale sharks used to behave quite different to the males. Usually they keep their distance when around the bagan by swimming around in a relatively deeper water and rarely came up to the surface to feed on the baitfish. But I got to tell you, Blueberry is quite an outgoing and social gal! we frequently saw her around the bagan with the other male sharks, swimming close to the surface and feeding on the small shrimps.