Conservation
Whale shark Conservation Status
The whale shark is recognized by a number of international conservation bodies as being an animal that is vulnerable to man-made threats. This assessment takes into account what is known about whale shark biology and ecology but is also based on what we don’t know. Elusive animals like the whale shark are more vulnerable because it is difficult for scientists to measure the impact of any particular activity or event on a species when we know very little about its life, where it lives or how many individuals there are left in the world.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
The whale shark is on the IUCN red list and is classified as ‘vulnerable to extinction’. The population sizes of animals in this category are expected to decline in size by 30% over the next 10 – 100 years. It is not currently known how many whale sharks there are in the world. Estimates range from 30,000 to 3000,000 individuals!
Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)
Due to its ability to travel long distances across different countries borders, the whale shark is included in the list of migratory shark species covered by the CMS. The CMS is an international agreement to which countries sign up in order to protect migratory species that may pass through their waters.
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
The whale shark is also one of the many species covered by CITES. Countries that sign up to CITES agree to ban the trade import or export of whale shark body parts or products. This is particularly important when one considers the increasing demand in shark fins.
Why is the whale shark naturally vulnerable?
Slow moving: The whale shark is slow moving and often found swimming close to the surface. This means it is an easy target for fisherman, vulnerable to collisions with vessels and susceptible to disturbance from tourism.
Slow to mature: It is slow to reach sexual maturity which means there is a higher chance that the whale shark will be injured or killed before it can reproduce and give birth to offspring.
Infrequent reproduction: It is also thought that the whale shark reproduces relatively infrequently. This infrequent reproduction coupled with the fact that it takes a long time for these animals to reach sexual maturity means that it would take a long time for a whale shark population to ‘bounce-back’ from any over exploitation such as over-fishing or perhaps a catastrophic event such as an oil spill for example.
Highly Mobile: Highly mobile or migratory animals are more likely to be endangered than those that are not. Moving large distances requires large amounts of energy. It can also mean the whale shark passes into areas where there may be no protection or a higher risk or being hunted or struck by boats. Lastly, large parts of mobile species lives are often a mystery as they are out of reach of humans. Without knowing where or how they are living it is difficult to put conservation measures in place to protect them.
Threats to the whale shark worldwide
Fishing: The hunting of whale sharks is now banned in many countries. However some targeted fishing of whale sharks does still take place - both legally and illegally. Some fishermen catch the whale shark to sell for food, others for its oil-rich liver and some specifically target this large shark for its fins, for which there is a high demand in the far-East.
Accidental fishing: Whale sharks can be caught unintentionally as ‘by-catch’ in fishing-nets or they may become entangled in discarded fishing gear. Because the whale shark swims forwards continuously, overtime rope or netting caught on the shark’s mouth or fins can work its way through its skin and flesh, in some cases causing major injuries.
Pollution: The whale shark spends its life sieving out tiny animals from the ocean. It is completely reliant therefore on a food source that is very susceptible to any chemical change in the water. Chemical spills could pose a major threat to the whale shark and other poisonous pollutants like plastic refuse can be accidentally consumed by the shark.
Boat traffic: Swimming slowly close to the surface whale sharks are prone to collisions with fast moving boats. The hulls and propellers or these vessels can cause serious injury or death to a whale shark. The areas in which whale sharks are most vulnerable are shipping channels and areas where there is a large amount of tourist boat traffic.
Unregulated tourism (habitat disturbance): In addition to the threat of collisions with tourist vessels unregulated whale shark tourism can be highly invasive and exert a pressure on whale sharks though habitat disturbance. Whale sharks exposed to large numbers of tourists may alter their behaviour from feeding for example to high energy evasive behaviour like accelerating or diving. It has to be assumed that sustained levels of invasive behaviour from tour operators and tourists could result in whale sharks no longer visiting areas that may be critically important habitats.
Conservation Measures
Government Protection: The governments of countries that host aggregations of whale sharks can put laws in place that make it illegal to harvest whale sharks. In order to reduce the number of sharks caught illegally alternative livelihoods should be provided for fisherman that used to be reliant on whale sharks for an income or a food source. Alternative livelihoods should make the most of the fishermen’s skills. Running a whale shark tour operation is a good example of an alternative more sustainable livelihood.
International agreements: Governments from neighboring countries may well host the same whale shark population and should therefore work together. They could sign up to inter-government agreements that ban the hunting of whale sharks and the trade (import and export) of whale shark products.
Marine Protected Areas: Key whale shark aggregation sites could be made Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s). These areas aim to preserve important whale shark habitats and ecosystems by preventing overexploitation of marine resources within a particular area. Measures could involve making the area a ‘no-take zone’ where no extractive activities like fishing or coral mining can take place. It could involve imposing regulations on tour operators within a particular area like speed limits or vessel size limits. As whale sharks are highly mobile the best case scenario is for many of these MPAs to be set up, forming a network of whale sharks sanctuaries.
Reduce demand for whale shark products: Awareness raising campaigns can be effective at putting pressure on consumers to stop purchasing whale shark products. The demand for whale shark flesh, liver oil and fins drives legal and illegal markets. The lower the demand the less profitable and attractive the trade in whale shark products becomes.
Sustainable Tourism: Tourism if conducted in a sustainable manner can be part of the solution. If tourism is well regulated to minimize the disturbance to the whale shark and its habitat it can provide an important source of money. A portion of the revenue generated from tourism could be used to fund the enforcement of the laws, pay for education initiatives for children and fisherman and fund a research and monitoring programme. True eco-tourism should actually help the conservation of the whale shark.
Research and monitoring: The more we can learn about the whale shark the better we can protect it. An effective research programme is an essential part of conservation. Without a good knowledge of what the whale sharks requirements are it is impossible to identify potential threats and put measures in place to minimize them. Monitoring a species and its ecosystem overtime is important as it allows us to see how effective the measures are that have been put in place.
Education: Education of citizens is a key part of conservation and the preservation of the environment. Schools are able to give present and future generations the knowledge base they need to make decisions and changes to their everyday lives that can help bring about long term positive change.
