Marine scientist tagging a whale shark in “Galapagos Marine Reserve”
© Galapagos Whale Shark Project
Discover the movements of “Sky” the juvenile whale shark
Implementation of the “Wildlife Tracker” in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.
The “Galapagos Whale Shark Project” has been monitoring whale sharks in the Galapagos Marine Reserve since 2011. Nowadays, they are using the “Wildlife Tracker for Oceans” for near real-time visualization including ocean bio-physical variables to understand how the movements of these giants are driven.
Photography by:
© Sofia Green
Galapagos Whale Shark Project
Monitoring with near real-time web maps
Sky’s pathway during 2021 - 2022
“Sky” is a juvenile 5m long female whale shark that was tagged in August 2021 and its movements were monitored until February 2022. This demo is a real-time web map that was used to monitoring its movements.
Image DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6477840
Ocean bio-physical variables
Sky’s pathway and Sea Surface Temperature (SST)
The “Wildlife Tracker” gives the possibility to choose the date that the user wants to add the SST layer. This demo contains the weekly average of the last record transmitted by Sky on February 24th, 2022.
Image DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6477840
Marine Copernicus Data. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00164
Sky’s pathway and Chl-a concentration
The Chl-a concentration is used as a proxy of Zooplankton productivity. Whale shark movements can be explored by food availability on selected dates. This demo contains Chl-a concentration of the last recorded location of Sky on February 24th, 2022.
Image DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6477840
Marine Copernicus Data. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00015
Alert system based on fishing pressure
Individuals affected by Fishing Pressure in 2021-2022
The “Wildlife Tracker” notifies an alert-on-land when the tag's location is sending signals from the continental area. Commonly it happens when whale sharks or the tags are caught accidentally by fishery vessels.
Image DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6477840
Risk areas based on Fishing Effort data
The “Wildlife Tracker” is able to add the Fishing Effort in the last location where individuals sent signals from the open ocean. The Fishing Effort data shows the hours of fishing activity at 0.1 degrees grid.
Image DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6477840
Fishing Effort Data: Global Fishing Watch (2022)
