The Galapagos Conservation Trust (GCT) is heavily involved with the Galapagos Whale Shark Project (GWSP) which since the summer of 2011 has been tagging and tracking these giants.
The Galapagos Islands is the only place you can predictably find pregnant whale sharks and since we know so little about these creatures it is the site of much research into their life history, with the unique population that can be found here.
Part of this research has been linked with a MSc project with the University of Essex, with the main aim to determine why the whale sharks are there. While it may seem obvious the reason is food but previous work had never spotted active feeding so it was dismissed. Using satellite data provided by NASA this was determined to be a large factor in the route these pregnant whale sharks take, possible on their way to pup. Which is something we know nothing about currently. With more tagging expeditions there will come more data and we hope more discoveries into the life history of these gentle giants.
Should you want to know more about current research into these creatures please visit the GCT website.
Learn more at: http://galapagosconservation.org.uk/ and more information about research carried out by GWSP at: http://galapagosconservation.org.uk/food-for-thought-whale-sharks-in-the-galapagos/ and other projects GCT are involved with http://galapagosconservation.org.uk/blog/
