A US newspaper article last week reported that Scientists discovered one of the largest aggregations of whale sharks ever sighted in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. But in this week's report in that same newspaper - the news went from encouraging to depressing - as three whale sharks were sighted swimming in heavy oil only four miles from the gushing Deepwater Horizon wellhead. Biologists predict that the oil is going to be sticking to these whale sharks gills and other parts of their bodies.
Now, these could be the same whale sharks that travel through the Gulf of Mexico in migratory routes to Belize and other Central American countries. Today Seven News caught up with Melanie McField who is the Director of the Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative and according to her even though we are not directly being affected by the major oil spill in the Gulf, there might be some concerns for some of our wildlife here in Belize. :...
Melanie McField, Director - Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative
"There was an article on the internet today where there were showing actually some whale sharks that were headed towards the oil spill or maybe it was actually in the oil, I haven't seen the video but the point is those whale sharks that are in the gulf, the population seems to be move around, they spotted sharks in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida and I believe Alabama or Mississippi where it's the same sharks that we see here in Belize. It is affecting us even though it's not actually the oil is making its way down here and it is affecting some of the wildlife that we have in Belize."
Monica Bodden
"How are these sharks being affected, they are actually swimming in these areas. What does that mean?"
Melanie McField
"The whale sharks remember they feed on planktons so they are different that most sharks. They open their mouth and skim through plankton and they get trap in there gills and they eat it so the gills would be the part that really gets rake over and that's where you got you exchange of oxygen. They are probably be affected more by clogging of their gills and probably suffocation. The thing is we will never know how many died because sharks unlike other marine mammals when they die they sink. So they die at the bottom of the gulf and no one will ever know, we will never be able to count how many die."
Whale sharks are the largest fish on earth and feed by filtering plankton and tiny fish from the water through a sieve like mechanism in their mouths.....
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