February, 2017
Update on the whale shark data collected by our tags. Provided to Save the Blue by Dr. Mark Erdmann.
PTT 158580 Kodo: As mentioned in my last update, Kodo has made one of the most incredible journeys of all the 23 whale sharks we’ve finmount tagged to date. After shooting up north to Mindanao (via Mapia and Palau), he then came south to the Kei Islands in the Arafura Sea, and then over to the coast of southern Papua, near the city of Merauke. Whale sharks have never been reported here, and I have to believe he’s feeding on small baitfish off the estuaries there - but it's a weird place to imagine a whale shark (massive mangrove swamps, huge estuaries and very shallow mud flats with terrible visibility and lots of salt water crocodiles). As noted previously, after hitting a max depth of 640m, he seems to have broken his depth gauge. We really hope at some point he returns to Cendrawasih so we can pull his tag off and download the high-res data of his amazing journey.
PTT 158581 Ke’Opulupulu: Not much new information to give on Ke’Opulupulu. He was the first of your sharks to make a move, and he has made a lot of interesting movements just outside of Cendrawasih Bay in the deep water off Biak. He hit a maximum depth of 625m during that time, then returned to Kwatisore, where he’s been hanging ever since. We are going to be doing a big expedition to Kwatisore in July with the Georgia Aquarium for a 2-week health assessment of the sharks, and we will be capturing any sharks we see with tags on them and downloading them.
PTT 158582 Pongo: Though venturing all around the bay, including into the deepest parts of the middle of the bay, Pongo has never left Cendrawasih Bay. Since I last updated you, he has increased his depth record to 768m! However, his tag has stopped transmitting since October. We’re not sure what happened here - with two of the other sharks we tagged that spent a lot of time in Kwatisore with the bagans, they managed to so badly fray the antenna’s on their tags (due to interactions with bagans I think) that they could no longer transmit. Again, we’re hopeful to find Pongo in July and download his tag.
PTT 158584 Merlin: Merlin has been a real Kwatisore homebody - spending 95% of his time within 50 miles of Kwatisore for the past year! He made a few small jaunts out into the bay, but has been at “home” for months now. He did increase his depth record to 360m during this time. Importantly, we’ve managed to catch him twice (once in May, once in late October) and download and redeploy his tag.
PTT 158581 Ke’Opulupulu: Not much new information to give on Ke’Opulupulu. He was the first of your sharks to make a move, and he has made a lot of interesting movements just outside of Cendrawasih Bay in the deep water off Biak. He hit a maximum depth of 625m during that time, then returned to Kwatisore, where he’s been hanging ever since. We are going to be doing a big expedition to Kwatisore in July with the Georgia Aquarium for a 2-week health assessment of the sharks, and we will be capturing any sharks we see with tags on them and downloading them.
PTT 158582 Pongo: Though venturing all around the bay, including into the deepest parts of the middle of the bay, Pongo has never left Cendrawasih Bay. Since I last updated you, he has increased his depth record to 768m! However, his tag has stopped transmitting since October. We’re not sure what happened here - with two of the other sharks we tagged that spent a lot of time in Kwatisore with the bagans, they managed to so badly fray the antenna’s on their tags (due to interactions with bagans I think) that they could no longer transmit. Again, we’re hopeful to find Pongo in July and download his tag.
PTT 158584 Merlin: Merlin has been a real Kwatisore homebody - spending 95% of his time within 50 miles of Kwatisore for the past year! He made a few small jaunts out into the bay, but has been at “home” for months now. He did increase his depth record to 360m during this time. Importantly, we’ve managed to catch him twice (once in May, once in late October) and download and redeploy his tag.