Little Changes Today is a conservation themed blog with weekly informative posts aimed at suggesting how you can personally improve the planet. Posts include weekly articles, species information and other interesting information to allow you to become more informed about the natural world.
With Christmas just round the corner and the idea of Christmas
shopping in the front of most people’s minds, even though I’m sure most of you
like me has only thought about it so far and has not actually bought anything yet.
I’ve come across this company through Facebook and from a look into it they look like an idea gift to give in this festive season.
4Ocean is a company which has been set up by a couple of
surfaces who wanted to make a difference. They are attempting to reduce the 1.4
billion pounds of rubbish which enters the world’s oceans each year. They achieve
this by selling bracelets, with the proceeds from each sale guaranteeing the
removal of one pound of rubbish from the oceans.
So far their website (at time of publishing) says they have managed to remove
200,115 pounds from the oceans across the globe targeting both coastal beach
clean ups and offshore regions at the same time.
So go check out their website at the link below and maybe
give your friends and family a gift that also benefits the planet.
If you live in the UK I’m sure you’ll know that currently
the BBC is airing a new series of Blue Planet II which is well worth watching
if for some unknown reason you aren’t already. It was last nights episode on
the open ocean and featured the animal I’ll be writing about today.
The Whale Shark as stated in the program is a little
understood creature, we are yet to unravel the complex stages and behaviours of
these creatures. Saying this we do know some interesting information on whale
sharks.
As a species they are mainly found within the Indo-Pacific region with
75% of their population being present there whilst the other 25% can be found
in the Atlantic Ocean. This being said studying these population reductions
has led to scientist believing that Whale Shark numbers have fallen by over 50%
in the last 75 years and they are currently categorised as endangered on the IUCN red list.
These declines have been related to three main reasons. Fisheries are making up a large part for this decline, fishing for Whale Sharks is
mainly undertaken in the South China Sea. Another cause is due to bycatch as it
is believed that the presence of Whale Sharks indicate that there are Tuna around and so upon sighting, nets are set and inevitably Whale Sharks gets caught a
s well. A
final reason is from vessel strikes, with the trade routes becoming
increasingly busy as the need to transport goods intensifies more and more
Whale Sharks are being found in shipping lanes. This is exacerbated as Whale Sharks
regularly feed at the surface making them more vulnerable to collisions.
Whale Sharks can grow up to 20m long and reach a weight in
excess of 34,000kg, and all of this mass is sustained by microscopic creatures.
As it is well known Whale Sharks are filter feeders and filter out plankton and
krill from suspension. They are capable of processing 6,000L an hour which
passes over many thousands of teeth like structures. Whilst most of this
feeding takes place at the surface where blooms are frequently found they can
also dive over 700m to feed where blooms have gathered due to nutrient rich
upwelling providing suitable conditions for their food sources.
It is possible to be able to identify individuals from their
unique pattern of white spots on their backs. Thanks to this and tracking tags
more and more has been learnt about Whale Shark behaviour in recent years.
However we currently still don’t know all that much about their life whilst
they are young this is because we are yet to find a Whale Shark nursery. It was
suggested in Blue Planet however that as hundreds of Whale Sharks gather round
the Galapagos Islands whilst pregnant that they could be giving birth in the
depths around these islands so as to allow their young to avoid predation from
there sharks.
In an attempt to protect Whale Sharks for future generations
many larger fisheries have ceased target based fishing. As well as key coastal
feeding areas such as Ningaloo reef (Australia), Gladden Spit (Belize) and many
others in an attempt to provide suitable conditions to encourage population
growth. Hopefully these steps and an
increased knowledge of these amazing creatures will result in the stabilisation
of Whale Shark populations, leading to population growth in the future.
