WHALE SHARK STUDY
AT A GLANCE
9: Number of years researchers spent tagging whale sharks in the Yucatan Peninsula for the study,
“Horizontal Movements, Migration Patterns, and Population Structure of Whale Sharks in the
Gulf of Mexico and Northwestern Caribbean Sea,” published in the journal PLOS ONE.
100+: Number of scientists, interns and eco-tourism operators who contributed to the study.
5: Number of scientific papers published to date as part of this study.
813: Number of whale sharks outfitted with ID tags.
956: Number of individual whale sharks identified based on photographs of their unique spot
patterns.
47: Number of whale sharks photo-identified in the Yucatan Peninsula that were also spotted in other
areas around the globe (that includes 26 that went to Honduras, 14 off Belize, four off Louisiana and two
off Florida’s west coast and one off Florida’s east coast).
35: Number of whale sharks tagged with satellite transmitters.
7,213: Minimum number of kilometers traveled by the whale shark nicknamed “Rio Lady” (that’s about
4,500 miles) over 150 days.This is the second longest distance recorded for a whale shark migration. She
averaged a speed of 52 km (32 miles) per day.
1,600: Number of meters in Rio Lady’s deepest dive (that’s about a mile).
Page 37