Follow the big boys - City of Houston Underwater Mariners - The Water's More Exciting with CHUM in it

Sushi Boy · **Follow the big boys -** 07-28-2010, 10:34 AM

Hi, I'm Sushi Boy, and I'm a whale shark junkie

I'm pretty excited, I uploaded 10 "encounters" to the ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library.

If you have photos of whale sharks, please consider doing the same. It's a great way to easily (and non-invasively!) contribute to learning more about these beautiful giants.

The ECOCEAN staff will run the pics through their software and figure out if the shark is one already in their database or a new addition. To see a copy of what a preliminary encounter report looks like click here.

Here's the cool part. Once you've submitted an encounter, every time the shark is identified in the future, you'll get an email telling you when & where it was sighted.

Please let us know if you submit encounters.

Also, this thread is sticky, so please report back as your sharks reappear & let us know where they go.

Volans · 07-28-2010, 10:42 PM

I have submitted two whale sharks, also from Isla Mujeres last sunday.

Sushi Boy · **Woo hoo! -** 08-30-2010, 11:58 AM

I got a hit!

"Hello!

Just a quick e-mail to let you know that the whale shark encounter that you submitted has been ADDED as a new, previously unidentified shark in the ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library.

This Library database will help efforts to understand and further protect this threatened species.

Thanks again for your help.

Sincerely,
Zaven Arzoumanian
President, ECOCEAN USA"

My shark is now officially MXA-306.

Booty · 09-01-2010, 09:00 AM

Awesome stuff! The Shark Research Institute works with ECOCEAN in whale shark research.

We should think about trip down to Placencia, Belize in June to dive with the whale sharks down there! Just sayin...

Sushi Boy · 09-03-2010, 09:28 AM

Got another one identified as a new addition to the database - MXA-314

Ecocean has an adoption program that helps support their efforts, so I decided to go ahead and adopt this one.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to...
CHUMbawumba

Sprout · 09-03-2010, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sushi Boy

Got another one identified as a new addition to the database - MXA-314

Ecocean has an adoption program that helps support their efforts, so I decided to go ahead and adopt this one.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to...
CHUMbawumba

That is so awesome! I really need to submit my pics from July!