On Thursday the 4th of December the first Maldives Whale Shark Protection Area (MPA) meeting was hosted on the beautiful 5star deluxe resort island Diva Maldives located in the South Ari Atoll. The Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP) has been established by an international team of biologists, who since 2006, have been working to build up a profile of the whale shark population in the Republic of Maldives. The MWSRP have been invited by the former Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Dr Shaugee to assist in a community driven initiative to designate South Ari’s southern outer reef as a ‘national whale shark park’. The MWSRP is working hard to build strong relationships with local community representatives and as a result preliminary discussions with resort managers, dive center managers and island chiefs in the region regarding the development of a marine protected area have been very positive.
This meeting was mainly to initiate this by bringing for the first time partners in this fight together. In the meeting gathered were; From the local islands Ahmed Qasim, Ahmed Junah (Assistant Island Chief and Airport development manager from Maamigili), Mohamed Abdulla (Assistant island Chief Dhidhoo), Hussain Fayaz (School Headmaster Digurah), Ibrahim Hassan (assistant Island Chief Digurah) and from Fenfushi, Shahid Abdul Raheem (Island Chief). But also resort island were present. Diva Maldives was represented with both the General Manager Johnny Matis, the Resident Manager Xavier Arnoux and the Euro-Divers Dive Center Manager Dennis Kaandorp. From neighboring resorts Euro-Divers Vilamendhoo Dive Center Maanger Mike Cristiani was there and representing Holiday Island and Sun Island Thomas Weber was present. From the initiators of the MWSRP we had Adam Harman, Morgan Riley and Richard Rees.
The goal of the MWSRP is to be a Maldivian-run program that exists to facilitate perpetual whale shark research projects and to foster community focused conservation initiatives within the Maldives
The Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP) has been established by an international team of biologists, who since 2006, have been working to build up a profile of the whale shark population in the Republic of Maldives. The goal of the MWSRP is to be a Maldivian-run program that exists to facilitate perpetual whale shark research projects and to foster community focused conservation initiatives within the Maldives.
Since 2006 the MWSRP have been investigating the demographics and behavioral ecology of the Maldivian whale shark sub-population though photo identification, prey surveys and collaborating on international genetic analysis and satellite tagging projects. Over three distinct field work periods the program has logged over 350 whale shark encounters and by utilizing photo-identification software a database of 100 individual sharks has been compiled. The MWSRP are also currently conducting a nationwide survey to investigate whether there are any other significant whale shark aggregation sites in the archipelago.
The program has been working closely with the government, tour operators and local communities to make currently unregulated whale shark directed tourism sustainable. In June 2008 the MWSRP gave a presentation to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation and the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Water on the status of the whale shark population. On the strength of the evidence presented, it was requested that a workshop be organized for the MWSRP to discuss best-practices with key industry stakeholders. This workshop, also held in June, was successful and the resulting whale shark encounter policy has been officially endorsed by the government.
The MWSRP has worked hard to build strong relationships with local community representatives and as a result preliminary discussions with resort managers and island chiefs in the region regarding the development of a marine protected area have been very positive.
At the moment the South Ari Atoll one of the only places in the world known that has all year round Whale Sharks. This combined with a big variety of dive sites one of the top dive destinations not just in the world but also in the Maldives to dive. Yet we have to do our share in protecting these magical creatures. Certain rules have to be made to protect them as much as possible. Many Whale Sharks here like other places in the world bare scars from encounters with man. This can be avoided by education and regulation. This became clear during the meeting that the Maldivian themselves see these creatures as their legacy to their children.
As result to the meeting all gathered agreed to set up a committee to achieve the goal. More meetings are expected to take place soon.
Written:
10-12-2008 Dennis Kaandorp Euro-Divers Diva Maldives