More than 75% of the whale shark population has been reduced and the remaining animals are living in threat.
“The first time I swam with a whale shark I was impressed, I simply did not have the right words to describe that feeling,” recalled Rossana Maguiño, biologist, specialist in whale sharks at the Center for the Integral Conservation of Marine Ecosystems of the Eastern Pacific, Ecoceanica, the only Peruvian research center dedicated to studying this species, El Comercio explained.
According to the Whale Shark Conservation Project, this animal travels 1,600 kilometers from the Galapagos, in Ecuador, to reach the Peruvian north. However, its trace mysteriously disappears from the monitoring and tracking system and never returns to its point of origin, which leads investigators to believe that these animals are being illegally hunted to commercialize its meat in the Asian market.
The whale shark is a protected species in Peru since 2017, therefore its extraction, transport and commercialization is prohibited. However, Maguiño told El Comercio that little is known about this large animal.
She was interested in studying the whale shark after a visit to Mexico where she learned about other scientists who were collecting data on this animal. She felt curious about it and decided to do the same in Peru.
According to her, the whale shark can live up to 130 years and it needs at least 30 to achieve sexual maturity.
“In Peru, we are not used to eating whale shark meat so there is no directed fishing here. However, globally, the whale shark is caught mainly by Asians because of its fins, with which they prepare a shark fin soup, and their meat is prepared as a kind of tofu”, Maguiño said.
