RESEARCH

The ecology of whale sharks in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.

The information collected in the Sharkwatch Arabia database will be utilised in David Robinson's personal Ph.D. which is investigating whale shark ecology in the region. David is a student of Heriot-Watt University based in Edinburgh and Dubai and is part of Shark Project Oman based at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman. His research is supported by the Qatar Ministry of Environment, Emirates Diving Association and Sharkquest Arabia Initiative. The Ph.D. research will be made up of population dynamics, satellite tagging to investigate the movements of the sharks, plankton sampling to find out what the sharks are feeding on and remote satellite imagery to relate encounters to specific environmental conditions.

Satellite Tagging Initiative

One of the aims of the research is to satellite tag as many whale sharks as possible in the region to determine how the sharks utilise our waters and beyond. The first whale shark was successfully tagged off the coast of Qatar on April 23rd 2011. The shark was an 8m female that we called Amna, the tag was supplied by the Qatar Ministry of Environment who are providing support to research the whale sharks found in Qatari waters.

Sponsorship of Satellite tags

Many thanks go out to the following for sponsorship of satellite tags for my PhD research project:

Al Ghurair Foods and to Ibrahim Al-Zu'bi & EDA for making it happen...
The Qatar Ministry of Environment
All members of the Emirates Natural History Group
The Save Our Seas Foundation