Whale Shark Festival set for July 1-5

From a post on BYM Marine Environment News:

This summer, thousands of visitors to Isla Mujeres, Mexico will celebrate the beauty and culture of this fishing community while championing the need to preserve a fragile marine ecosystem at the Whale Shark Festival, a five-day extravaganza that showcases the achievements, the traditions and the environmental splendor of Isla Mujeres.

Announced today, Project Domino, an initiative sponsored by the Mexican government helping scientists study whale sharks, has joined the Festival as a partner. Project Domino is dedicated to the study, preservation and tracking of whale sharks in the waters surrounding the Yucatan. Their local Photo Identification library is shared with the Global Tracking Library.

Project Domino joins Festival sponsors Ceviche Tours, an ecotourism company, and the Department of Tourism for Isla Mujeres. Nonprofit partners include environmental leaders ECOCEAN, a renowned marine conservation organization; and Amigos de Isla Contoy A.C., which promotes the conservation of Isla Contoy, nature areas and regional projects of the Yucatan peninsula.

The Festival will be held July 1-5, 2009 in Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico.

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Pregnant whale shark tracked in the wild

From a story by Mark Davis in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

She was in Mexico, but abruptly headed east toward Florida. She vanished for a while, but surfaced again this June, back in Mexico — pregnant, and alone.

But she's no modern-day gypsy following highways to the next party. This female traveler is a whale shark, part of a population that scientists think may be the largest collection of the world's largest fish.

Scientists from the Mote Marine Laboratory and the Georgia Aquarium tagged her with a satellite tracking device in 2005 and charted her movements across the Gulf of Mexico to the Florida Straits. This year, she was back offshore at Holbox, Mexico, noticeably rounder than nearly a year earlier when the Rhincodon typus turned tail from the Yucatan Peninsula.

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