Are the biggest fish getting smaller?
A new paper on the whale shark population at Ningaloo Reef in Australia has just been published online. The study uses over 10 years worth of sighting to show a decline of almost two metres in the average length of the sharks using the area and a concurrent decline in the number of sightings. Scary stuff. The researchers suggest that overfishing is the most likely cause of these rapid changes in population composition.
See also a recent interview with Dr Mark Meekan from the Australian Institute of Marine Science about this paper.
I saw this fish in the dominican republic last week what an incredible sighting i was within a fooot of its mouth when i ducked under the water and saw him it scared the hell out of me and the dive master said i had a once in a life time sighting
By: mike Hallgring on April 2, 2011
at 3:09 pm