‘Whale sharking’ at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

Our first field campaign in Ningaloo Reef (Western Australia) has been a real success! We sighted 102 whale sharks in 10 days and collected a bunch of whale shark biopsies. All this was possible thanks a fabulous team of shark experts, professional photographers and of course very helpful crew-members.

Whale shark eye ©Lara Marcus

Although the weather was against us, we managed to collect everything we needed. We used a small plane to locate the sharks. Once a shark was located a bunch of snorkelers with assigned roles jumped into the water. We took photos of their characteristic ‘spot-line’ patterns for identification, we tagged them to see where they were going and with a modified hand spear we took the biopsies which are giving us very interesting results…

Looking at Ningaloo plankton ©PeterVerhoog/DutchSharkSociety

Ningaloo Reef is without a doubt a very special place. Different than the Great Barrier Reef (East Australia), in Ningaloo, the reef is very close to shore making it very easy to explore and enjoyable while swimming with manta rays, turtles, reef fish, dolphins and of course, the big star of the show the whale sharks. We also saw a tiger shark and a great hammerhead shark! We can’t wait to go back for more samples and a great experience!