{"id":186558,"date":"2023-11-07T09:39:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=186558"},"modified":"2023-11-07T12:42:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T22:42:04","slug":"30-foot-whale-shark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/11\/07\/30-foot-whale-shark\/","title":{"rendered":"30-foot whale shark spotted off K\u0101ne\u02bbohe Bay by <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_32439\"  width=\"676\" height=\"676\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vv2Eh5v8cYk?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"30-foot whale shark spotted off K\u0101ne\u02bbohe Bay by 糖心Vlog官方 researchers\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M&#257;noa researchers spotted the world\u2019s largest fish species, a 30-foot whale shark, a mile off <span aria-label=\"Kaneohe\">K&#257;ne&#699;ohe<\/span> Bay near Kualoa Ranch on November 2.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.himb.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Institute of Marine Biology<\/a> (<abbr>HIMB<\/abbr>) <a href=\"https:\/\/himbsharklab.com\/\">Shark Research Lab<\/a> were returning from conducting field work when they spotted seabirds flying over what they suspected was a bait ball, where small fish swarm in a tightly packed spherical formation near the surface while being pursued and herded by predators below.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Royer, a <abbr>HIMB<\/abbr> shark researcher, went into the water to see what sealife had gathered to feed and was surprised to see the whale shark.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_186571\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-186571\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/manoa-himb-whale-shark-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"whale shark\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-186571\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/manoa-himb-whale-shark-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/manoa-himb-whale-shark-130x130.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/manoa-himb-whale-shark.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-186571\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo credit: Mark Royer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;It is surprising,&rdquo; said Royer. &ldquo;[Whale sharks] are here more often than we think, however they are probably hard to come across, because I didn\u2019t see this animal until I hopped in the water.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The whale shark was feeding on nehu (Hawaiian anchovy) and Royer said the video captured a large aggregation of predators both small and large including <span aria-label=\"opelu\">&#699;opelu<\/span> (mackerel scad), kawakawa (mackerel tuna), aku (skipjack tuna), sandbar sharks and seabirds, who were also feeding on the nehu.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;While all the small nehu were being drawn to the surface from all the predators, the whale shark was coming in and using its massive mouth to come up to the surface, open it, and then the suction would cause all the fish to funnel into its huge mouth,&rdquo; said Royer.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple sandbar sharks (approximately five feet in length) swam below the whale shark. Above the surface, birds were circling around and diving to eat the nehu. Whale sharks are known to approach boats standing idle in the water. It is important to be mindful and respectful, let them approach, and don\u2019t aggressively approach and disturb them.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[The whale shark] would swim and approach our boat that was nearby, put its head up to it and go back down, and repeat that over and over again,&rdquo; said Royer. &ldquo;That\u2019s a behavior that whale sharks sometimes exhibit: if your boat is standing still in the water they [might] approach you. They\u2019ve been known, both here in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> and other parts of the world, to do that.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><span aria-label=\"Lelewaa\">Lelewa&#699;a<\/span> <span aria-label=\"olelo\">(&#699;&#333;lelo<\/span> <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> for whale shark) was likely named for their propensity to approach and lean on canoe outriggers according to the late Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau.<\/p>\n<p>The Shark Research Lab investigates the behavior, physiology and ecology of sharks and other fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> researchers were conducting field work tagging tiger sharks when they spotted the whale shark on November 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[53,1363,175,9],"class_list":["post-186558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-hawaii-institute-of-marine-biology","tag-manoa-research","tag-marine-biology","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186558"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186672,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186558\/revisions\/186672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}