Whale sharks – gone……???

This January 2011 I went on a couple of occasions beyond the reef (south coast Mombasa, Kenya) to show a friend and fellow wild life traveler these beautiful giants of the tropical waters, the whale shark.
I usually had the luck of seeing them underwater whilst diving however on this occasion I had to make do with a 5 meters fiberglass open deck boat with 2 outboard engines and no diving gear.

Our 1st day was completely negative to my surprise and on the second occasion we took a local fisherman with us who warned us that all whale sharks have gone!!!!????? He was correct.

On the East African coasts I have spotted hundreds of these harmless giants (plankton eaters) in the past however currently most have all gone!

Why? Asking the locals from small carved canoe fishermen to big game fishermen (that practice tagging) and scuba divers they all came up with the following extraordinary explanation!

About 18 months ago – a team of international biologists came to the Kenyan coast with a couple of boats, 1 helicopter and a set of riffles used to dart the sharks. Their aim was to study and understand their living patterns.

The results for now are completely negative; 90% of the whale sharks have been scared off, have disappeared and have not come back which takes the migration patterns out of the equation. The locals are very upset as more harm than good has been done.

This is inside local news which seems to be true as we did not come across any and I know these waters quite well however I do not have any professional documentation to back this theory.

What s crying shame Cody. Thanks for the story on this.

Playing devil's advocate, one wouldn't think a team of biologists would be able to scare these creatures from their home permanently, even if they were darting some to study them. One can't help but wonder if it is some type of pollution in the waters that forced the whale sharks to another area. Every year I read of beach/ocean cleanups off Mombasa and the tons of flip flops, condoms and other things are found and picked up. And I believe it was either you or Simba that stated the reefs are declining. Thus perhaps the food sources have been contaminated. Just a thought.

Cody and Jan -

I've been following the alarming reports of the reduction in the numbers Whale Sharks for many years. Of course, there may be many reasons why there were no animals seen on your particular visit. Perhaps they were just some place else on their migratory route. I know from people who see them off the Kenyan coast for decades - that they are most usually present & seen in the months of February and March.

One must keep in mind, though, the biggest reasons for the drastic reduction of all shark species around the world - overfishing and the popularity of "Shark Fin Soup", and this includes the beautiful, gentle, Whale Shark. The Whale Shark reproduces late in life - in their late 20's or 30's - so it stands a good chance of being killed off before it has a chance to reproduce.

I wouldn't think the fisherman (who are already overfishing every species on the Kenyan Coast, and using illegal nets which kill many non-targeted species) would be the best source of information on this subject. Why shouldn't they just blame the scientists who are trying to protect/save the species!!!

Cody, I also look forward to your trip report! Welcome back!

Thanks for the additional information on whale sharks Kat. I always learn something new from you!

Thanks, Jan, but I only know what I hear/read from the scientific conservation community.

There is a blog at Wildlife Direct by the East African Whale Shark Trust but they haven't posted anything for almost a year. I will try to email them directly to try to find out some more info regarding this beautiful and vulnerable species. Their numbers have risen and fallen over the last 10 years - so I will try to find out more about their current status - off the Kenyan coast.

We also have Whale Sharks off the U.S. coast - in the Gulf of Mexico and there are fears that their prey (plankton and krill) have been severely impacted by the huge BP oil spill. Will look into that also.

Thank you Jan for all you contribute to this important site!

Kat, one of our active Bushdrummers, wrote the Whale Shark Project and got this reply:

There are several reasons I believe, first of all Kenya had a peak whale shark season in 1998 until 2003 when we would see groups of 40-50 whale sharks per day! This we believe was due to the mantis shrimps invasion which seems to happen every 30 years, on one beach alone there was 150 metric tons of mantis shrimps washed up, in other words, an abundance of food near the coast attracting the sharks. Once the shrimp invasion was over we started to see less and less whale sharks.

Another problem is that fishermen off Lamu, Pate and Kiwayu Islands have started to target whale sharks for their liver (they don't actually eat the meat believing it to be poisonous) which they use to impregnate their wooden boats to prevent it being eaten by ship-worm. Last year alone we got reports that at least 40 whale sharks had been killed off Pate Island, in Malindi 4 whale sharks were killed in a single day! There might be a solution to this problem, visit www.worldsbestdivedestinations.com and click the whale shark tab to find out more.

The 2008 tagging expedition was a success with 17 pop-off archival satellite tags applied, 2 tags came off outside Kiwayu Island and started traveling on land, suggesting that these 2 sharks had been caught and the tags removed (we actually followed the tags to the fishing village on google earth since the tags were transmitting for a week!) The suggestion about the sharks "swimming away" after being tagged is indeed very questionable : ) In fact, several of the tagged sharks stayed in the area for several weeks after being tagged, one swam to Mafia Island and came back after 5 month, stayed in the area where it had been tagged for a month while 4 sharks stayed off the Kenyan coast for a year! Whale sharks have one of the smallest brains compared to body weight (a 6 meter, 2500Kg whale shark has the brain the size of a walnut!) therefore, suggesting that they would "remember" where they were tagged is quite unlikely. In fact, most of the sharks that have been tagged don't even react, nor swim away, on some occasions we even swim with the tagged shark for hours!. Invaluable information has been acquired thanks to these tags, we now know that most of our sharks stay in Kenya or keep coming back, making them more vulnerable to over-fishing than previously thought.

I hope this answers some of your questions, although I can imagine that some answers will make you sad, my favorite "motto" is; "No one can do everything but every one can do something" The synthetical shark liver oil seems to be a very good solution, how can you help?

Kind regards

Volker Bassen