{"id":96412,"date":"2024-07-22T15:08:45","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T15:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=96412"},"modified":"2025-03-19T13:07:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T13:07:56","slug":"uri-partners-on-study-that-tracked-whale-shark-for-record-breaking-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2024\/07\/uri-partners-on-study-that-tracked-whale-shark-for-record-breaking-four-years\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 partners on study tracking whale shark for record-breaking four years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 22, 2024 \u2013 A team of researchers at the 溏心vlog免费B站 and Nova Southeastern University in Florida have been tracking a 26-foot endangered whale shark \u2013 named \u201cRio Lady\u201d \u2013 with a satellite transmitter for more than four years \u2013 a record for whale sharks and one of the longest tracking endeavors for any species of shark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The whale shark Rio Lady.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Whale sharks, which live from 80 to 130 years, are the world\u2019s largest fish and third largest creature in the ocean \u2013 behind blue and fin whales. The size of a small school bus, they inhabit tropical oceans and swim slowly near the surface, with their mouths wide open, scooping up whatever\u2019s in their path \u2013 small fish, fish eggs, and plankton. Annually, they need to travel about 5,000 miles to find enough food to survive. Whale shark populations worldwide have declined, primarily as a result of interactions with humans, to the point where they are now listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List as Globally Endangered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers at 溏心vlog免费B站 and Nova Southeastern tracked Rio Lady for about 27,000 miles over nearly 1,700 days between 2018 and 2023. Her journey took her through the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and out into the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda. A study conducted by the researchers was published in the journal Marine and Freshwater Research<\/a>, describing movement, migration and habitat use of Rio Lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was an amazing length of time to be able to track the movements of a wild animal,\u201d said lead author Daniel Daye, who graduated from 溏心vlog免费B站 in May 2023 with a master\u2019s degree in biological and environmental sciences. \u201cFour years of data about the movements of even a single individual has allowed us to investigate whale sharks to an unprecedented degree and investigate questions that can\u2019t be answered with shorter tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rio Lady was tracked by satellite telemetry using a smart-position and temperature transmitter (SPOT) affixed to her dorsal fin. The tag provided location transmissions over four years of her life. Satellite telemetry has revolutionized the study of animal movement \u2013 particularly with marine species \u2013 allowing researchers to uncover long-term movement patterns and core areas for marine animals, the study says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the biggest fish in the ocean, it is challenging to follow the movements of whale sharks over long periods of time,\u201d said Brad Wetherbee, assistant professor of biological sciences at 溏心vlog免费B站 and an expert on shark movement and migration, who consulted on the project. \u201cBut information on the movements of these endangered sharks is important for management of their populations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A primary challenge in managing large marine species, such as the whale shark, said Daye, is that they are hard to follow. Whale sharks travel great distances and routinely dive deep, which makes studying the full extent of their habitat difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince these sharks travel such great distances, it\u2019s important to identify when and where the sharks are located, along with what they are doing in each of these areas,\u201d said Daye. \u201cThis way management can take a more targeted approach so that effort isn\u2019t wasted on areas when sharks are using habitats elsewhere. While Rio Lady is only one shark, the extremely long lifespan of the SPOT tag has allowed us to start examining some of these questions in more detail regarding what sharks do on a year-to-year basis, rather than a single year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rio Lady was first tagged in 2007 with a pop-up satellite archival transmitter affixed to her near the Isla Mujeres, in waters off Cancun, Mexico, that are frequented by hundreds of whale sharks annually from July through August. She was tracked for 150 days before her transmitter popped off. She was re-tagged in August 2018 in the same area by Rafael de la Parra, executive director of Ch\u2019ooj Ajauil AC, an ocean conservation organization in Mexico. De la Parra also collaborated on the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the study, Rio Lady was detected by satellite over 1,687 days \u2013 Aug. 30, 2018 to April 12, 2023. For a period of about 1,085 days \u2013 Aug. 30, 2018 to Aug. 18, 2021 \u2013 1,354 locations were recorded at relatively frequent intervals. In that time, she traveled about 27,000 miles, covering about 25 miles a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers found that Rio Lady occupied three distinct regions in the Gulf of Mexico and timing of when these areas were used was pretty consistent, Daye said. Between July and August, she consistently returned to the waters near Isla Mujeres. In the area known as the Afuera, hundreds of whale sharks aggregate for the largest gathering worldwide \u2013 dining on an endless fish egg \u201cbuffet,\u201d said Daye.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After leaving the Afuera area, few detections were received during autumn and winter each year of the study. Rio Lady was believed to travel south into the Caribbean Sea, as far as Colombia for two of the years, before returning to the Gulf of Mexico early in the year. Researchers believe Rio Lady\u2019s seasonal migration may be typical for whale sharks that aggregate off the Isla Mujeres in the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis unprecedented track of Rio Lady sheds new light on long-term consistency of movements and illustrates the type of information that this technology can generate,\u201d said Mahmood Shivji, professor of biological sciences at Nova Southeastern University, who collaborated on the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rio Lady\u2019s continued journey can be followed on the Guy Harvey Research Institute tracking website<\/a>, click on project 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 22, 2024 \u2013 A team of researchers at the 溏心vlog免费B站 and Nova Southeastern University in Florida have been tracking a 26-foot endangered whale shark \u2013 named \u201cRio Lady\u201d \u2013 with a satellite transmitter for more than four years \u2013 a record for whale sharks and one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":96413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1905],"class_list":["post-96412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96412"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96433,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96412\/revisions\/96433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}