ningaloo reef is privileged to be one of the few places in the world known to be visited by the mysterious whale shark (rhincodon typus) on a regular basis. each year, just days after the mass spawning of corals on the ningaloo reef in march and april, whale sharks appear in the waters along the front of the reef, remaining for up to a month. it is thought that they come to feed on an explosion of marine life that feeds on the coral spawn. most of these visiting whale sharks are immature males. it remains an intriguing puzzle why this particular section of the population visits our coast.
whale sharks will grow to over 12 metres in length, which is about the size of a large bus. whale sharks are not aggressive, they cruise the oceans feeding on concentrations of zooplankton, small fish and squid. whale sharks occur world-wide in tropical and temperate seas and are thought to be highly migratory. however, there is little information currently available on this aspect of their behaviour. also, the population is unknown and the species is considered vulnerable. for better understanding (and better protection) of the whale shark it is important to collect as much data as possible. a few years ago a non-profit organisation called ecocean introduced a worldwide photo identification library. in the next few weeks, i'll report all my whale shark encounters to ecocean and you'll also find some of them here in my blog.
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