June, 2016
Update on the whale shark data collected by our tags. Provided to Save the Blue by Dr. Mark Erdmann.
158580 Kodo: Not a whole lot of data being transmitted from this shark, but what we have indicates he’s dived to 200m depth at least, and is sticking close to the place we tagged him.
158581 Ke’Opulupulu: Ke'Opulupulu has been a busy shark!! Soon after we tagged him, he went North and hung out on south coast of Biak for quite some time, then did something we’ve not yet seen from any whale shark - he shot out into the deep blue and hung out for a while north of Biak, then moved southwest a bit and has been hanging out for a while in an area just on the continental shelf break. The data we have indicates he’s dived to at least 625m depth, but I suspect he may have gone deeper and hopefully we eventually see that. No idea what he is doing out there, but VERY interestingly, one of the sharks we tagged in October 2015 (153665) has been very closely following him - also going north of Biak for a while and then to the SW in the middle of the ocean. This is really cool, as we have no idea what they are doing!!
158582 Pongo: Pongo has just been hanging out near Kwatisore bagans - has dived to 256m depth.
158584 Merlin: Merlin's tag has been transmitting well, has dived to 350m, and recently has moved north to near south coast of Yapen.
158581 Ke’Opulupulu: Ke'Opulupulu has been a busy shark!! Soon after we tagged him, he went North and hung out on south coast of Biak for quite some time, then did something we’ve not yet seen from any whale shark - he shot out into the deep blue and hung out for a while north of Biak, then moved southwest a bit and has been hanging out for a while in an area just on the continental shelf break. The data we have indicates he’s dived to at least 625m depth, but I suspect he may have gone deeper and hopefully we eventually see that. No idea what he is doing out there, but VERY interestingly, one of the sharks we tagged in October 2015 (153665) has been very closely following him - also going north of Biak for a while and then to the SW in the middle of the ocean. This is really cool, as we have no idea what they are doing!!
158582 Pongo: Pongo has just been hanging out near Kwatisore bagans - has dived to 256m depth.
158584 Merlin: Merlin's tag has been transmitting well, has dived to 350m, and recently has moved north to near south coast of Yapen.