sallysnowglobe:

Rolling in the deep. 

Perhaps Most definitely the coolest photo I will ever have with a whale shark.  Taken by photographer and all round hero, Steve De Neef (www.stevedeneef.com).   

This shot was taken whilst we were out on survey here in Southern Leyte last week.  This individual is actually LSR-24 – the 24^th shark our LAMAVE team has identified here in Sogod Bay.  It’s a juvenile male and if you look closely at the photograph you’ll see it has a big scar across the back of it’s head- probably from a fishing line. 

The photo shows me photographing the shark for identification.  By taking photographs of the unique spot pattern on the left side of the shark – just behind the gills and above the pectoral fin - we can identify individual sharks – it’s effectively a cheap way of tagging whale sharks and it’s through this process that we are assessing the whale shark population in this area of the Philippines.  One thing we are trying to find out is whether the sharks are hanging around or just passing through?  This individual, LSR-24 has now been here for over a month, having first been identified by our LAMAVE team at the end of February this year.  Whilst I took the photograph, he continued to feed slowly, the two of us, chilling just below 10 meters from the surface…      

Followers, meet my friend Sally. She works for the Large Marine Vertebrates Project at the research base in Southern Leyte, Philippines. Follow her for first hand shark adventures! 

Female Hawksbill turtles are monogamous.  

Because “New insight into Hawksbill Turtles’ mating patterns” or “Hawksbill turtles’ monogamous sex life revealed” sounded creepy and overfamiliar. 

Dr David S Richardson and Karl Phillips from the University of East Anglia looked at turtle nests on Cousine Island in the Seychelles, an eco-tourism holiday destination favoured by the rich and famous.

Working with the islands’ conservation staff they used a non-harmful procedure to collect DNA from the hard skin of the flipper, or around the shell.

The researchers looked at 43 mothers and 1600 young to reconstruct a genetic model of each nestling’s father, without having to catch the males out at sea. ‘It’s important to do this so that we can understand their mating system and see how much genetic variation there is within the population’ says Richardson.

This is the first comprehensive study into Hawksbill Turtle mating patterns and the findings may help conservationists refocus efforts to where they’re needed.

…

The scientists were surprised then to find all of the eggs from an individual female are normally fathered by the same male. This means the mothers mate only once and then store the sperm for the entire mating season, fertilising all their eggs with it.

Monogamy in the animal kingdom is the exception rather than the rule. Many females are forced to mate multiple times by aggressive males, or prefer to mate multiply to ensure they have the best quality sperm.

‘If they mate with one male and then met another one that was in some way better, bigger or stronger, they might re-mate and have a mix of eggs fertilised by both,’ Richardson explains. ‘However, it seems female Hawksbills would rather mate just once, far away from their nesting site, then store the sperm, perhaps to avoid unwanted male attention.’

…

Now the scientists know that not only are there lots of males fathering the nestlings, but there are many male turtles scattered far across the Indian Ocean. Conservationists can use this information to widen their efforts, from the beaches where the females lay their nests to the entire Indian Ocean area, in order to protect males too.

Read more.

By Harriet Jarlett | Planet Earth Online

Since my mask, snorkel and fins got stolen last week I’ve had to find upgrades replacements. I have accidentally ended up as a walking swimming Cressi advert! But ain’t no whale shark gonna out-swim me with these babies on!