Taxon name
Rhincodon typus
Smith, 1828
Uploaded by
National Red List Database
Taxonomic information
Scientific name
Rhincodon typus
Smith, 1828
Assessed taxon level
Species
Higher level taxonomic groupings
Vertebrates
Fishes
Species authority
Smith, 1828
Location and scope
Specific locality or subnational name or regional name
United Arab Emirates (the)
Scope (of the Assessment)
National
Countries included within the scope of the assessment
United Arab Emirates (the)
Does the assessment cover a marine EEZ area(s)?
Not_assigned
Conservation Status
Qualifying criteria (if given)
A2d
Criteria system used
IUCN
(see Assessment details)
Assessment rationale/justification
The Whale Shark occurs throughout UAE pelagic and coastal waters, and conducts seasonal migrations. Capture of this species is totally banned in the UAE. It is taken as bycatch in gill net fisheries in the UAE, but is not particularly valued there. It may be impacted by vessel strikes, especially in the vicinity of busy shipping lanes in the Gulf. Elsewhere, where it has been historically exploited, large-scale declines have occurred (e.g., India, the Maldives). Protective measures are in place, and directed fisheries mostly no longer exist, though the species is retained when taken as bycatch. It exhibits slow life history characteristics, including low fecundity and a low annual rate of population increase. Considering this, the species has a low capacity to recover from even moderate levels of exploitation. It is especially susceptible to exploitation (target and bycatch) in many largely unregulated gill net fisheries that operate within its range outside and surrounding UAE waters. Some management measures are now in place in the Arabian Sea region, although domestic fisheries are likely to continue. Though data specifically from the UAE are not available, individuals in the UAE are a component of a larger, interconnected and migratory population that occurs broadly in the north-western Indian Ocean. It is inferred that declines reported in the Arabian Sea region are representative of its status in the UAE. Based on recorded levels of exploitation, it is suspected to have declined by 50-80% over the past three generation lengths, or about 75 years. It is listed as Endangered A2d.
Assessment details
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
UAE National Red List Workshop
Criteria system used
IUCN
Reference for methods given
IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1, Second edition. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. iv + 32pp pp. And IUCN. 2012. Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels: Version 4.0. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iii + 41pp.
Further information
Endemism (according to assessment)
Endemic to region
Not assigned
Taxon distribution as listed in assessment
The Whale Shark occurs throughout UAE waters (Hellyer and Aspinall 2005, Jabado et al. 2014). Elsewhere, it is circumglobally distributed in tropical and warm temperate seas.
Is there a map available in assessment?
Yes
Habitat and systems
Ecological system type
Habitat
Habitat details as listed in assessment
Whale Sharks are found in both coastal and oceanic habitats (Rowat and Brooks 2012). This species is highly mobile, with mean daily movement rates of 24-“28 km based on tethered geopositioning tags (Hueter et al. 2013). Whale Sharks spend the majority of time in the epipelagic zone, but dive to at least 1,928 m in depth (Tyminsky et al. 2015). Most sightings occur at a small number of known coastal feeding areas for the species, where the sharks aggregate on the surface to exploit seasonal productivity such as fish spawning events or zooplankton blooms (Rowat and Brooks 2012, Robinson et al. 2013). A degree of inter-annual site fidelity has been documented in many locations (Cagua et al. 2015, Norman et al. in press). Sexual- and size-based segregation is typical in these locations, with a bias towards juvenile males from 4-“8 m total length (TL) (Rohner et al. 2015, Norman et al. 2017, Robinson et al. 2016). The largest recorded Whale Sharks are approximately 20 m TL (Chen et al. 1997) and 42 t in mass (Hsu et al. 2014) as reported from Taiwan. An individual extrapolated to be 18.8 m TL was caught in India (Borrell et al. 2011). Estimates of TL at maturity for males vary between 7-9.2 m TL (Norman and Stevens 2007, Ramírez-Macías et al. 2012, Rohner et al. 2015). Size at maturity in females is approximately 9 m TL, based on visual and laser photogrammetric estimates (Acuña-Marrero et al. 2014, Ramírez-Macías et al. 2012). Whale Shark reproductive ecology is poorly known. Pregnant female sharks are seasonally found in the Eastern Pacific, particularly off Darwin Island in the Galapagos Archipelago (Acuña-Marrero et al. 2014) and the Gulf of California (Eckert and Stewart 2001, Ramírez-Macías et al. 2012), but rarely sighted outside this region. The single pregnant female that has been physically examined, from Taiwan, had 304 pups in various stages of development, establishing that this species is lecithotrophic viviparous (Joung et al. 1996, Schmidt et al. 2010). The largest size class of embryos, 58-“64 cm TL, appeared close to fully developed (Joung et al. 1996). Size at birth is presumed to be around that size although a 46 cm TL specimen was the smallest free-swimming neonate found in the Philippines (Aca and Schmidt 2011). Age and growth data on Whale Sharks are sparse. Based on biannual band-pairs, it is estimated that that male sharks begin maturing at ~17 years and females at 19-“22 years in the Indo-Pacific with generation length estimated at 25 years (Hsu et al. 2014).
Threats and conservation measures listed
Threats listed in assessment
The major threats to the Whale Shark include fisheries (both directed and incidental) and vessel strikes. Where shipping lanes are located close to Whale Shark feeding areas, vessel strikes are more common (Motta et al. 2010, Gleiss et al. 2013). Propeller injuries are commonly recorded during monitoring programs (Rowat et al. 2006, Speed et al. 2008, Fox et al. 2013). Areas where Whale Sharks appear to be at particular risk include the Gulf waters, where a high frequency of serious propeller injuries are observed during monitoring (D. Robinson unpubl. data). Coastal development may be particularly problematic in the Gulf region as Whale Sharks can be attracted to and become entrapped in ports and suffer from extended exposure to warm temperatures (D. Robinson pers. obs.).
Publication
Ralph, G.M., Stump, E., Linardich, C., Bullock, R.W., Carpenter, K.E., Allen D.J., Hilton-Taylor, C., Al Mheiri, R., and Alshamsi, O. 2021. UAE National Red List of Marine Species: Reef-building corals, cartilaginous fishes and select bony fishes. 2021. Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.