Migration Patterns of Whale Sharks 2005 -2008

Migration Patterns of Whale Sharks; A summary of 15 satellite tag tracks from 2005 to 2008. Each year from March to May, whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), aggregate on the continental shelf of the central Western Australian coast. At Ningaloo Reef, whale sharks are often found swimming close to the reef front, within a few kilometres of the shore and in water of less than 50 m deep. A tourist industry based on snorkelling with the sharks in this area has developed over the last 10 years and is now worth over $20 m annually to the local economy of the Ningaloo region. The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has a long-term research project that examines the ecology of whale sharks. A central aim of this project is to determine regional long-term movement patterns of whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef. This is achieved by tracking sharks with a variety of tags, principally Wildlife Computers SPLASH tags Benthos Point intercept data extraction from high resolution still images @ 10m spacing was entered into the AIMS TowedStills system prior to subsequent specialist statistical analyses.

鲸鲨迁徙模式：2005至2008年15条卫星标记追踪轨迹汇总。本数据集汇总了2005年至2008年间的15条卫星标记追踪轨迹。每年3月至5月，鲸鲨（Rhincodon typus）会在西澳大利亚中部海岸的大陆架海域聚集。在宁格鲁礁（Ningaloo Reef）海域，鲸鲨常活动于礁缘附近、离岸数公里范围内且水深不足50米的水域。过去十年来，依托该区域鲸鲨浮潜项目的海洋旅游业逐步发展壮大，目前每年可为宁格鲁地区的地方经济创造超过2000万澳元的产值。澳大利亚海洋科学研究所（Australian Institute of Marine Science, AIMS）长期开展鲸鲨生态学研究项目，其核心目标之一是探明宁格鲁礁海域鲸鲨的区域长期迁徙模式。该项目通过多种标记设备追踪鲸鲨，主要使用的是Wildlife Computers公司的SPLASH卫星标记标签。以10米为间隔采集的高分辨率静态图像中的底栖点位截获数据，已被导入AIMS的TowedStills系统，用于后续的专业统计分析。