ESO urges people to save whale sharks in Oman waters from illegal fishing

The Environment Society of Oman has called upon people to protect whale sharks, locally called ‘kar’, in the Sultanate’s waters. The period between September and November is migration season for the whale sharks that head towards Damaniyat Island. The island is a restricted and protected marine natural reserve that is home to stretches of unspoiled reefs and an array of diverse marine life. “These species are endangered because of illegal/ irresponsible fishing, coastal/ marine development wreaking havoc on highly sensitive ecosystems, deep seabed mining and marine fracking, Cetacean stranding (beaching), ocean noise pollution, marine pollution and climate change,” according to the Sea Shepherd Legal, a nonprofit, public interest, environmental law firm based in the US. A study conducted last month by Sharkwatch Arabia, a database aimed at collecting sightings on whale sharks throughout the region and which is part of a Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) project, said all the satellite- link tagged sharks crossed international maritime boundaries where they stayed within the Arabian Gulf. Only nine sharks dispersed through the narrow Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf of Oman. Most sharks stayed close to known or suspected feeding aggregation sites during summer, but dispersed throughout the Arabian Gulf in winter. The study suggests Musandam could be the second most important regional hotspot for this creature after Al Shaheen Oil Field, off the coast of Qatar, which is one of the largest whale shark feeding aggregations in the world. Whale sharks can grow up to 40 feet long, but on average they grow to 18 to 32.8 feet and weigh 20.6 tonnes. A whale shark’s mouth is about five feet wide. They have rows of over 300 teeth, but they do not use these teeth to eat. Plankton are their main food source, but they also eat shrimp, algae and other marine plant material, sardines, anchovies, mackerels, squid, tuna, albacore as well as fish eggs. Zainab al Nassri