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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Whale shark residency and small-scale movements around oil and gas platforms in Qatar
Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol.12, 1568607
2025
Abstract
Whale sharks seasonally aggregate near oil and gas platforms in Qatar to feed on fish spawn, creating one of the world’s largest aggregations of the species. We used passive acoustic telemetry to examine their fine-scale movements, residency, and seasonality and investigate whether the platforms influence their space use in this area. Tags had a mean retention of 161 ± 186 days (standard deviation, SD) and 32 of the 117 tags were recorded in multiple years in the acoustic array (21 stations). Most detections were recorded from May to September, confirming that this whale shark aggregation is seasonal. Whale sharks stayed up to 77 consecutive days in the array (mean = 16 ± 12.51 days) and had a mean residency index Rmax of 0.31. Although most detections (65%) were made at a single receiver located near a platform, here designated P1, an ‘open water’ receiver near this location also had a high proportion of total detections (8.5%). Receivers at other platforms, located away from this specific site, had relatively few detections. The distance from P1, identified as the center of the aggregation, was the main explanatory variable in a GAM. Whale shark aggregations were routinely observed feeding on tuna spawn at the surface at this location, with the eggs (and hence whale sharks) moving with the current through the day, and moving through the array as they did so. Whale sharks then swam against the current in the late afternoon and at night to relocate back to near the presumed tuna spawning site, close to P1, again in the early morning. Rather than being generally associated with platforms, whale sharks were clearly associated with a specific feeding location close to P1. Our results highlight the importance of this small feeding area for whale sharks, which face a high threat level in the region.
Details
- Title
- Whale shark residency and small-scale movements around oil and gas platforms in Qatar
- Authors
- Steffen S. Bach (Corresponding Author) - Ministry of Municipality and Environment (Qatar)David P. Robinson - Sharkwatch Arabia (United Arab Emirates)Mohammed Y. Al Jaidah - Ministry of Municipality and Environment (Qatar)Simon J. Pierce - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringPrasad Thoppil - United States Naval Research LaboratoryChristoph A. Rohner (Corresponding Author) - Marine Megafauna Foundation
- Publication details
- Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol.12, 1568607; 16
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media Sa
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.3389/fmars.2025.1568607
- ISSN
- 2296-7745; 2296-7745
- Copyright note
- © 2025 Bach, Robinson, Al Jaidah, Pierce, Thoppil and Rohner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
- Data Availability
- The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
- Grant note
- We thank everyone involved in the Qatar Whale Shark Research Project, as well as the staff at the Qatar Ministry of Municipality and Environment (QMME) and the Qatar Coast Guard for providing the platform to carry out field research in Qatar. We thank A.P Møller Mærsk (Maersk Oil) for providing the majority of financial support for the purchasing of equipment and the staff of the Maersk Oil Research and Technology Centre. SP and CR were additionally supported by Waterlust, Aqua-Firma and the Shark Foundation. We thank Sheikh Abdulah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani for supporting the Qatar Whale Shark Research and publication of the study.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991144504002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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