The migration pattern and site fidelity of whale sharks are unclear.
They are rarely encountered at Gladden Spit during non-fish-spawning times. Repeated observations indicate that at least 2 sharks ‘Fringy Dorsal/Kinky Tail’ and ‘Arca’ stayed at the aggregation for several days in April and in May 1999.
Arca returned again in June.
One whale shark that we tagged was sighted at Turneffe Atoll (80 km to the north, 2 mo after tagging), and another near the Sapodilla Cayes (55 km to the south, 3 mo after tagging).
These observations indicate that the identity tags with nylon dart heads are retained for at least 3 mo.
More comprehensive studies, utilizing satellite and telemetry tags are now underway to determine migration routes and home ranges, especially in relation to food sources.
Basking sharks, the world’s second largest fish, have been reported to track zooplankton production and have thus been suggested as indicators of high zooplankton densities (Sims & Quayle 1998).
We similarly suggest that satellite-tagged whale sharks might help locate dense concentrations of zooplankton, micronekton, or other major spawning events.