On arrival we were still unable to see the sharks from our boat, since most were several metres beneath the surface. As soon as the ultralight team spotted what looked like a whale shark they radioed down and we made our way to the reported coordinates, with growing excitement. The plane scoured the area, flying between 12 and 457 metres above sea level. The plane flew above us around a designated area, whilst our team waited beneath in a strategic spot on a speed boat. Therefore, a new collaboration was proposed with ‘Ecuador Bajo Mis Alas’, who brought their ultralight aircraft from mainland Ecuador to serve as a spotter plane. However, since we did not know exactly where to find the whale sharks in this area, we needed special help: a bird’s-eye view of the area we were navigating through. In March, an expedition was organised on board a repurposed fishing boat around the southern and central islands. For a few years now, our team had hoped to launch an investigation to see if these sightings were more than just sporadic, yet due to COVID-19 restrictions, lack of funding and other impediments, we had not managed until this year. Dive guides, fishers and Park rangers would sporadically report encounters with whale sharks around the central and southern areas of Galapagos during the months of January to May, which is considered the warm season. These studies have been carried out year after year at Darwin in the cold season between June and November, assumed to be the best time and place for assured whale shark sightings.Įven though these are still considered to be the main season and sighting location for whale sharks in Galapagos, over the past years we received information that suggests another important aggregation exists in the Islands. For the past decade, the Galapagos Whale Shark Project alongside the Galapagos National Park, MigraMar Network, Galapagos Conservation Trust and other partner organisations have been studying whale sharks, categorised as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, to understand their life history and movement patterns in order to protect them. Success! I had just tagged the first whale shark ever to be tagged in the south of the Galapagos Islands!įor the past couple of decades, scientists and divers have been observing whale sharks that appear seasonally in the far northern region of Galapagos, specifically around Darwin and Wolf islands. Once in the right position I let go and watched her gently swim ahead, tag in place. As she moved forward I opened the fin clamp holding the tag and softly slid it onto her fin. We met mid-way as I slowly descended over her and waited for her dorsal fin to slide right beneath me. I continued swimming down and diagonally towards her, making sure I would not block her path. ![]() The first thing I saw was a large head covered in the most beautiful starry pattern I have seen a stunning, large, female whale shark was appearing and moving directly towards me. So let us accompany You on Your way through our store.Sofia Green tagging a whale shark while free-diving © Galapagos Whale Shark ProjectĪs I immersed myself in the water and dived a few metres down, I turned to look and there she was. Sounds good, right? Thats good for You and good for us. ![]() If many visitors leave our site during the purchase process while choosing the payment method, we know that something is wrong and can improve it. Nor do we pass this data on to Google, we don not have them not at all! Nevertheless, this data of SOMEONE will provide us with valuable information about our site, we want You to like everything here, that You feel good and - of course - buy our products. We do not know who You are, whether You are male or female, how old You are, how Your weight is - no idea. But look at it: we do not even know who YOU are, we just see that SOMEONE looks at our pages, how he/she does that, how long this SOMEONE lingers on the respective pages, etc. ![]() That sounds dramatically to You, we know. Why do we have to do that? Quite simply, you have forbidden us to watch Your steps on our site with Google Analytics. Too bad, now we have to go back to the glass ball or read in the coffee grounds to understand our visitors.
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