900th registered Whale Sharks in the Philippines
As of last weekend the waters around the Philippines have been home to at least 900 registered whale Sharks. The “Large Vertebrate Project of the Philippines” announced that on their Facebook page on Sunday, November 15.
The 900th gentle giant was registered in Southern Leyte in Pintuyan. After the encounter the team registered the whale shark with the Ecocean Whale Shark Research and Conservation on the international whale shark library, the WildBook for Whale Sharks, just to find out that it is the 900th.
According to the records, the waters around the 7107 islands of the Philippines are home to one of the largest populations of Rhincodon Typus, the scientific name for whale sharks.
The famous number 900 is a male with a length of about 4.5 meters.
The WildBook of Whale Sharks
The WildBook of Whale Sharks is a library and visual database of Rhincodon typus encounters. The database is maintained by marine biologists to collect and analyze data about this amazing creatures. The used identification software can distinguish between different individuals using skin patterns and any scars.
To support the studies about this amazing creatures, one can “adopt” a whale shark donating a small amount of dollars to keep the project and studies going.
With 900 registered whale sharks in the Philippines it can be estimated that a few thousand of this magnificent creatures are traversing between the islands.
