James Town, Saint Helena – Whale sharks should not be difficult for scientists to find. It is enormous – it’s the largest fish in the sea and perhaps the largest fish has ever lived. It is found in the warm oceans all over the world. According to shark standards, they are slow swimmers.
But somehow I also managed to be very special: The scholars do not know where they mate, and they have not noticed that before.
They finally have some clues. Scientists suspect that magic may occur in the water St. HelenaRemovable volcanic island in the southern Atlantic Napoleon Bonaparte He was exile once and died. It is the only place in the world where male and female whale sharks are regularly gathered in almost equal numbers – the food does not seem to be the main attraction.
Kenickie Andrews, director of the Marine Protection Project at St. says Hello Trust, he saw male sharks chasing females, eliminating their chest fins and “showing themselves” for female sharks, similar to mating rituals that were observed in other sharks including the great eggs.
“What we have seen here is the behavior of the classic shark,” he said. “To this day, we have not seen successful intercourse, but it is evidence (whale sharks) in our waters that experience these behaviors.”
Whale sharks usually measure 12 to 18 meters (39 to 59 feet), weigh up to 14 tons and eat plankton. All sharks have a unique pattern of white spots on their upper side.
Scientists say they need to know where sharks and childbirth mate so that they can protect those areas, perhaps by creating marine reserves where threats such as hunting are banned. The whale sharks are appointed as Extinction By the International Federation for Conservation of Nature; The group says that its population is “largely exhausted.”
Simon Pears, who studied whale sharks worldwide, said that he photographed scars suspected of sharks in St. Helena, perhaps from when sharks arrive from their chest fins to stick to them and enter into mating mode.
The behavior of the suspected whale whale in Australia has also been reported, and sharks also gather in places such as Mexico, the Arab Sea and the Maldives, but this seems to be male harassment of the immature females, explains Pierce, CEO and co -founder of the Marin Megona Foundation. This is not the case in St. Helena, where there are adult males and adult females.
St. Helen’s fisheries experts also presented eyewitnesses when they said they were cases of whale sharks. Officials described a lot of crushing on the surface of the water by two huge sharks that touch the abdomen to the abdomen, but these scenes were not taken on the video and are not considered enough evidence by scientists.
Cameron Perry, a research scientist in Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, works with colleagues on the island to connect the camera marks to investigate what the whale sharks do, but they faced some technical difficulties: sharks are deeper than 2000 meters (6561 feet). The signs cannot be pressed.
“We have some exciting and thickening video,” Perry said. “We have two sharks on the verge of connection, then our camera falls.”
Perry is not sure than the sharks might do much less than the surface, but it hopes that the new technology that is developed will help in answering this question. “It is just a numbers game in terms of the number of times we can get water.”
Alistir Dove, who previously conducted a search in Saint Helena, said he saw male whale sharks demanding contact with extreme sharks, including clamp rotation, or sexual organs, while saying that it was “the equivalent of an erection.”
“These sexual behaviors are very rare in whale sharks,” said Dove, now the CEO of the Science Museum. & History in Jacksonville, Florida.
“This is one of the huge questions that have not been answered about the largest fish in the world,” Dove said.
Andrews, from St. Helena, said he hoped that someone can capture video evidence of mating about whale sharks, but he admitted that the presence of researchers and the efforts of signs may unintentionally change the practices of mating for sharks.
He said, “Maybe they don’t want to see.” “Perhaps, like anyone else, they need privacy.”
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