Estimating the Long-term Effects of Whale Shark Feeding Practices
Published:01 Aug.2023 Source:Flinders University
Increasing opportunities for up-close encounters with sharks and other animals are making wildlife tourism one of the fastest growing tourism sectors -- leading Australian ecology experts to venture to one of the world's main sites to investigate the effects of tourism on endangered whale sharks. At Oslob in the Philippines, Flinders University's Southern Shark Ecology Group and Global Ecology Lab joined local Filipino researchers to measure how the daily feeding regimes for resident whale shark population might have affected their behaviour and physiology by assessing their activity and metabolic requirements.
Oslob is home to one of the world's largest whale shark (Rhincodon typus) tourism sites, and operators use 150kg to 400kg of food to attract the impressive animals to the picturesque location. In the 12 years since feeding whale sharks began, mass tourism at the location has increased the size of shark aggregation as well as changed shark behaviour, including 'desensitisation' to boat and human contact.
Supported by the Harry Butler Institute at Murdoch University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Ms Barry hopes her current PhD project will support management at West Australia's Ningaloo Reef by measuring the importance of foraging ground for this vulnerable species. Senior author Flinders University Professor Charlie Huveneers, Research Director of the Southern Shark Ecology Group, says the two-fold increase in whale shark activity was due to more rapid acceleration and altered tailbeat frequency and amplitude required by the sharks to move between and avoid each other and boats. Ms Barry says whale shark tourism at Oslob is vital for international tourism and the local economy, and therefore understanding how to ensure sustainable practices is important.