Data from one of the 10-day deployments provides exciting new insights on the shark’s vertical movement.The depth the shark occupied at the beginning of each hour shows the shark is frequently at 50-60m below the surface during most days and close to the surface at night. This was unexpected since it is during the day that we see the sharks at the surface. These data suggest whale sharks don’t spend a lot of time near the surface during the day and hence the sharks we can see at the surface at Ningaloo Reef are a small percentage of the sharks present. Image courtesy of Exploring the Census of Marine Life 2002/2003 Expedition, NOAA-OER.
Census of Marine Life 2002/2003
