08 Apr 2009 - Donsol,
Philippines: An extremely rare megamouth
shark was caught by Filipino fishermen,
marking only the 41st time the species has
been seen in the 33 years since its discovery
and giving new insight into the elusive
shark’s behaviour.
Fishermen based in Donsol
were trawling for mackerel along the eastern
coast of Burias Isle on the morning of 30
March when they caught a large shark from
a depth of approximately 200 meters.
The shark was brought
to shore in Barangay Dancalan in Donsol,
Sorsogon and WWF Donsol Project Manager
Elson Aca immediately arrived to assess
the haul and identified it as a megamouth
shark – considered the world’s rarest shark.
Megamouth 41, as the
Florida Museum of Natural History has named
the Donsol shark, measured four meters and
weighed an estimated 500 kg.
Last week’s megamouth
encounter underscores the importance of
the Donsol-Masbate region – part of the
Coral Triangle – as a haven for rare marine
life, according to WWF Philippines.
The discovery follows
last month’s rescue by WWF of a 38 cm baby
whale shark – considered the world's smallest
of its kind ever discovered.
"The presence of
two of the world's three filter feeding
sharks warrants special attention for the
Donsol-Masbate region," Aca said. "Whale
and megamouth sharks, manta rays, dolphins
and other charismatic giants indicate that
the region's ecosystem is still relatively
healthy.”
“By protecting megafauna,
we help maintain the dynamic balance of
our seas, and ensure the entire ecosystem's
resilience and natural productivity,” Aca
said.
WWF works with a host
of partners to protect the megafauna of
the Coral Triangle which is considered a
major center for marine biodiversity.
WWF's satellite tagging
initiatives have already shown that pelagic
filter feeders such as whale sharks and
manta rays regularly prowl through the region.
The megamouth (Megachasma
pelagios) is a fairly recent scientific
discovery, with only 40 recorded encounters
worldwide until the latest find.
The first specimen was
caught off Oahu, Hawaii in 1976. The discovery
led to the creation of an entirely new family
and genus - prompting the scientific community
to hail it as the 20th century's most significant
marine find and rivaling the rediscovery
of the coelacanth in 1938.
The megamouth shark
is so named for its enormous maw - almost
a meter wide and lined with a brilliant
silver band to attract planktonic prey.
It has been found roaming throughout the
Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Males
average four meters while females - which
give birth to live young – can grow to five
meters long.
Relatively little was
known of their habits until researchers
fitted a megamouth – the sixth one discovered
– with a pair of ultrasonic transmitters
and tracked it for two days in 11000. The
research indicated that the sharks spend
the daytime in waters up to one kilometre
deep and surface only at night to feed on
plankton, small fish and jellyfish - usually
at a depth of around 15 meters.
Eight megamouth sharks,
a full fifth of all recorded encounters,
have been caught in Philippine waters. Four
were caught in Cagayan de Oro and one each
in Negros, Iloilo and Cebu. Megamouth 41
is the first megamouth shark to have been
caught in Luzon, which is the Philippines’
largest island.
Sadly and despite protests
from Aca, the megamouth shark caught near
Donsol was later butchered and eaten. Its
stomach contents revealed it was feeding
on shrimp larvae.
For more than a decade,
WWF has worked in Donsol to establish community-based
whale shark eco-tourism, transforming the
once sleepy town into one of the Bicol region's
busiest revenue generators.
Current initiatives
funded by WWF-Denmark and supported by the
local government include researching whale
shark migration routes and numbers through
state-of-the-art photo-identification and
satellite tagging techniques.
The waters around Donsol
are part of the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas ecoregion,
one of WWF's Global 200 ecoregions — a science-based
global ranking of the world's most biologically
outstanding habitats and the regions on
which WWF concentrates its efforts. The
also make up part of the Coral Triangle,
a major area of marine biodiversity.
Leaders of the six nations
that make up the Coral Triangle – Philippines,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon
Islands and Timor Leste –will meet on May
15 in Manado, Indonesia for the World Oceans
Conference where they will announce a comprehensive
set of actions to protect ecosystems and
food security in the region.
