On Saturday morning about 7km north of Cape Vidal in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park two whale sharks, one 5m and the other 6.5m, were found having beached themselves. One had no signs of any injuries but the second had a lump on its head and an old wound on its caudal fin.

This has been seen as a natural occurrence according to iSimangaliso park CEO Andrew Zaloumis, he stated that along the park shores 10 whale sharks a year are found beached.

"While there is much speculation as to why whale sharks beach themselves, the actual reason is not known," he said.
Even though Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife marine staff and holidaymakers tried to move the whales back into the water they sadly couldn’t and both the whale sharks died.

Last week a whale shark measuring 6.5m also beached itself just north of Leven Point in iSimangaliso.

Zaloumis said the beached animals were measured, photographs were taken and the dorsal fins were removed and sent to the KZN Sharks Board for its monitoring and research programmes.

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Doug
written by Doug , January 12, 2010

up to 10 whale sharks a year in that smallish area, should we not be concerened?

How does the use of underwater sonar etc affect these creatures?

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Whale shark identification
written by Michelle Sachs , January 12, 2010

Were pictures taken of the whale shark's gill area? Each spot pattern is unique and there is a study being done on identifying individuals using this pattern as a means of identification as opposed to dorsal fin ID's which can change over the years.

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Update
written by kram , January 12, 2010

Good point Laura, the image has been updated.

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ms
written by Laura Johnson , January 11, 2010

would it not be better to have a picture of a whale shark in this article???????????????????

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