Whale Sharks, Rhincodon typus, Aggregate around Offshore Platforms in Qatari Waters of the Arabian Gulf to Feed on Fish Spawn

Whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, are known to aggregate to feed in a small number of locations in tropical and subtropical waters. Here we document a newly discovered major aggregation site for whale sharks within the Al Shaheen oil field, 90 km off the coast of Qatar in the Arabian Gulf. Whale sharks...

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Autores principales: Robinson, David P., Jaidah, Mohammed Y., Jabado, Rima W., Lee-Brooks, Katie, Nour El-Din, Nehad M., Malki, Ameena A. Al., Elmeer, Khaled, McCormick, Paul A., Henderson, Aaron C., Pierce, Simon J., Ormond, Rupert F. G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Research Article
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3596407/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23516456
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058255
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author Robinson, David P.
Jaidah, Mohammed Y.
Jabado, Rima W.
Lee-Brooks, Katie
Nour El-Din, Nehad M.
Malki, Ameena A. Al.
Elmeer, Khaled
McCormick, Paul A.
Henderson, Aaron C.
Pierce, Simon J.
Ormond, Rupert F. G.
author_facet Robinson, David P.
Jaidah, Mohammed Y.
Jabado, Rima W.
Lee-Brooks, Katie
Nour El-Din, Nehad M.
Malki, Ameena A. Al.
Elmeer, Khaled
McCormick, Paul A.
Henderson, Aaron C.
Pierce, Simon J.
Ormond, Rupert F. G.
author_sort Robinson, David P.
collection PubMed
description Whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, are known to aggregate to feed in a small number of locations in tropical and subtropical waters. Here we document a newly discovered major aggregation site for whale sharks within the Al Shaheen oil field, 90 km off the coast of Qatar in the Arabian Gulf. Whale sharks were observed between April and September, with peak numbers observed between May and August. Density estimates of up to 100 sharks within an area of 1 km(2) were recorded. Sharks ranged between four and eight metres’ estimated total length (mean 6.92±1.53 m). Most animals observed were actively feeding on surface zooplankton, consisting primarily of mackerel tuna, Euthynnus affinis, eggs.
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spelling pubmed-35964072013-03-20 Whale Sharks, Rhincodon typus, Aggregate around Offshore Platforms in Qatari Waters of the Arabian Gulf to Feed on Fish Spawn Robinson, David P. Jaidah, Mohammed Y. Jabado, Rima W. Lee-Brooks, Katie Nour El-Din, Nehad M. Malki, Ameena A. Al. Elmeer, Khaled McCormick, Paul A. Henderson, Aaron C. Pierce, Simon J. Ormond, Rupert F. G. PLoS One Research Article Whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, are known to aggregate to feed in a small number of locations in tropical and subtropical waters. Here we document a newly discovered major aggregation site for whale sharks within the Al Shaheen oil field, 90 km off the coast of Qatar in the Arabian Gulf. Whale sharks were observed between April and September, with peak numbers observed between May and August. Density estimates of up to 100 sharks within an area of 1 km(2) were recorded. Sharks ranged between four and eight metres’ estimated total length (mean 6.92±1.53 m). Most animals observed were actively feeding on surface zooplankton, consisting primarily of mackerel tuna, Euthynnus affinis, eggs. Public Library of Science 2013-03-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3596407/ /pubmed/23516456 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058255 Text en © 2013 Robinson et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Robinson, David P.
Jaidah, Mohammed Y.
Jabado, Rima W.
Lee-Brooks, Katie
Nour El-Din, Nehad M.
Malki, Ameena A. Al.
Elmeer, Khaled
McCormick, Paul A.
Henderson, Aaron C.
Pierce, Simon J.
Ormond, Rupert F. G.
Whale Sharks, Rhincodon typus, Aggregate around Offshore Platforms in Qatari Waters of the Arabian Gulf to Feed on Fish Spawn
title Whale Sharks, Rhincodon typus, Aggregate around Offshore Platforms in Qatari Waters of the Arabian Gulf to Feed on Fish Spawn
title_full Whale Sharks, Rhincodon typus, Aggregate around Offshore Platforms in Qatari Waters of the Arabian Gulf to Feed on Fish Spawn
title_fullStr Whale Sharks, Rhincodon typus, Aggregate around Offshore Platforms in Qatari Waters of the Arabian Gulf to Feed on Fish Spawn
title_full_unstemmed Whale Sharks, Rhincodon typus, Aggregate around Offshore Platforms in Qatari Waters of the Arabian Gulf to Feed on Fish Spawn
title_short Whale Sharks, Rhincodon typus, Aggregate around Offshore Platforms in Qatari Waters of the Arabian Gulf to Feed on Fish Spawn
title_sort whale sharks, rhincodon typus, aggregate around offshore platforms in qatari waters of the arabian gulf to feed on fish spawn
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3596407/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23516456
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058255
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