Mote Article, continued
“Rio Lady’s trek was a huge finding for us,” Hueter
said. “When we tagged her off the Mexican coast,
she appeared to be pregnant. Then she undertook
the second-longest migration ever confirmed for
a whale shark, and she moved into an extremely
remote area of open-ocean where, we suspect,
she gave birth to her young.”
Red List of Threatened Species™. This list is
recognized as the most comprehensive, objective
global approach for evaluating the conservation
status of plant and animal species. Whale sharks
worldwide face threats including boat strikes, net
entanglement, habitat alterations and even too
much pressure from well-intended ecotourism.
Large females like Rio Lady are uncommon at
the Yucatan Peninsula feeding cluster, which is 72
percent male.
Whale sharks feeding near Mexico received new
protection thanks in part to data gathered during
the PLOS ONE study. In June 2009, the Mexican
Feeding aggregations in other areas of the world government established a Whale Shark Biosphere
Reserve to extend a federally protected area to
also have a male bias.
include most of the whale sharks’ summer feeding
“Whale shark reproduction has been a mystery,” grounds.
Hueter said. “We think mature females may be
“When we mapped where the whale sharks were
staying offshore and traveling to the open ocean
feeding off the north coast of Isla Holbox, on the
so they can have their pups in areas with fewer
predators. Rio Lady’s migration has provided Yucatan Peninsula, the Mexican government took
us a huge clue. Now, we’re working with other action using data from our study and CONANP,
colleagues in remote mid-Atlantic islands to find a group we’ve been worki