Guidelines to provide protection for whale sharks

4/4/95

The world's biggest fish will receive special protection in Western Australian waters under new guidelines.

The move is part of the State Government's initiative to assist in developing whale shark viewing as a major nature-based tourism attraction in the Ningaloo Marine Park.

Environment Minister Peter Foss said a special closed season had been declared under the Wildlife Conservation Act.

The closed season set down specific guidelines for human interaction with the animals.

"It means whale sharks will have extra protection under the Act and the Conservation and Land Management Act," Mr Foss said.

The new guidelines have been presented in a brochure prepared by the Department of Conservation and Land Management and co-incided with the beginning of the whale shark watching season last month.

A 250 metre 'contact zone' around the animals has been declared. Only one vessel may operate in a contact zone at any one time but must stay at least 30 metres from the animal.  The second vessel to arrive at the contact zone must stand off 250 m. Subsequent vessels will have to remain 400 m from the animal.

A vessel can only remain in the contact zone for 90 minutes.

People swimming with the whale sharks must not touch or ride on the animal. Swimmers will have to keep one metre clear of the animals head or body and four metres away from the tail flukes.

Mr Foss said whale sharks might appear to be gentle giants but they were wild animals and could inflict serious injury if they struck a swimmer with their body, tail or fins.

The guideline brochure includes a simple questionnaire which people are encouraged to fill in and return post-free to CALM.  The survey is aimed at finding out more about the public's expectations of interaction with whale sharks.

Mr Foss said CALM had also prepared a whale shark log book for tourism operators with recorded information to be used in building up a profile of individual whale sharks and their migratory patterns.

"Very little is known about whale shark numbers, their behaviour or how much contact with humans they will tolerate before they become disturbed," Mr Foss said.

"CALM is looking at new initiatives including identifying individual animals and using 'smart tags' which will log information on the animal's position and depth."

The Ningaloo Reef is the only place where whale sharks are known to appear regularly in any numbers and are easily accessible to observers.

Media contact:  Stacey Molloy 321 2222 or 222 9595