New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) Indian scientists will try to distinguish individual whale sharks off the Gujarat coast, using a technique employed by NASA to identify galaxies.
Just as each tiger is distinguished by its stripes, whale sharks too can be identified through a unique pattern of spots that form points of numerous triangles on their bodies, say experts.
As the whale shark grows, the distance between these spots increases, but angles of these triangles remain the same, thus identifying the whale shark.
“The whale shark aggregation is less understood but from the satellite images it is clear there are large plankton blooms off the coast of Gujarat compared to any other maritime state and this could be the reason for such frequent sightings,” Joshi told IANS.
“To date, Ecocean has identified 2,109 whale sharks worldwide, from 9,800 whale sharks sighted in 43 countries. Many identified sharks have been re-sighted on several occasions,” Norman told IANS.
Ecocean has received support from the UN Environment Programme to promote the global whale shark library.
