Whale shark

Common Names: Whale shark.
Latin Name: Rhincodon Typus
Family: Rhincodontidae

Identification: Enormous size (worlds largest fish). Body scalloped (with two distinct ridges running from behind head along each flank into caudal fin. Pattern of white spots and indistinct lines on grey dorsum. Ventrum white or pale. First dorsal large. Caudal large. Mouth terminal and often open when observed feeding on plankton.

Size: Maximum length 18m (unconfirmed) reliably to 16m.
Habitat: Pelagic. Comes into reef areas when food supply is abundant e.g. coral spawning.

Abundance and distribution: Circumtropical except Mediterranean.
Behavior: Usually seen swimming with mouth agape in feeding mode. Little is known about the Whale sharks biology or migratory patterns.
Reproduction: Ovoviviparous. Previously thought to be oviparous due to an eggcase containing a Whale shark embryo dredge from the bottom of the sea. This perception changed in 1995 when a Taiwanese fishing boat harpooned an 8m female containing 300 embryos. Whale sharks have been observed at Ningaloo performing figure 8 maneuvers while nose to tail. It has been speculated that this may be some form of courting behavior.

Observations:
Photographs: Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia.

Similar species:
Reaction to divers: Whale sharks generally move away from the noise creatred by scuba bubbles and from physical contact. Getting too close to a whale shark often causes it to dive and 'riding' the sharks interferes with their natural behavior and should be discoraged even if local rules are very liberal. The best encounters tend to be on scuba.

Diving logistics: Operators around the world run Whale shark encounters. Some use spotter planes while others rely on the sharks returning to well known feeding sites. Ningaloo Reef encounters are very predicable and the customers generally get a few sharks each day during the season. For more information on Ningaloo go to the Exmouth / Ningaloo page in the Shark diving hotspots section of Elasmodiver or follow the link here.

Marine Biology Degree Programs in the U.S.

Marine Biology Degree Programs in the U.S.

The following is our list of all U.S. schools that offer degrees in Marine Biology. All links open in a new window linking directly to each school's marine biology program. To determine which school is right for you, you may want to consult the current rankings, but be forewarned that they are not always the best indicator of the "best" school. It is often better to make your own assessment based on the school's curricula, the experience of its faculty, and good laboratory facilities for hands on experience. To browse through a list of research facilities, click here. » Download the 256 page Admission Guide created by Franziska Elmer from Switzerland (700KB) - contains addresses, contact, student residential and program information as well as admission details for international students interested in Marine Biology degrees in the U.S. Thank you Franziska!

Contact us if you have any comments, changes or additions.

International Marine Biology Degree Programs »

Alabama
Alabama State University BS
Auburn University BS, MS, PhD
Samford University BS
Tuskegee University BS
University of Alabama BS, MS
University of North Alabama BS
University of South Alabama MS, PhD
University of West Alabama BS

Alaska Alaska Pacific University BS
University of Alaska Fairbanks MS, PhD
University of Alaska Southeast BS

California
California Lutheran University BA
California State University, Long Beach BS, MS
California State University (Moss Landing Marine Laboratories) MS
California State University Monterey Bay BS, MS
Humboldt State University BS, MS
San Diego State University BS
San Francisco State University BS, MA
San Jose State University BS
Sonoma State University BS
University of California Berkeley BS, MS, PhD
University of California Los Angeles BS
University of California Santa Barbara BS, MS, PhD
University of California Santa Cruz BS
Univ of California San Diego (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)University of San Diego BA, MS in Marine Science
University of Southern California PhD

Connecticut
University of New Haven BS
University of Connecticut BS, BA

Florida Barry University BS
Eckerd College BS
Florida Atlantic University BS, MS
Florida Institute of Technology BS, MS, PhD
Florida International University BS
Florida Keys Community College AS
Florida State University BS
Jacksonville University BS
Nova Southeastern University BS, MS, PhD
Stetson University BS
University of Florida: Fisheries/Aquatic Sciences (FAS) BS, MS, PhD
University of Miami: Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science BS, MA, MS, PhD
University of South Florida BS, MS, PhD
University of Tampa BS
University of West Florida BS

Georgia
University of Georgia BS, MS, PhD

Hawaii
Hawaii Pacific University BS
University of Hawaii Hilo BS
University of Hawaii - Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology BS

Kansas
Southwestern College BS

Louisiana
Nicholls State University BS, MS

Maine
Maine Maritime Academy BS
Unity College BS
University of Maine BS, MS, PhD
University of Maine Machias BS
University of New England BS

Maryland
University of Maryland MS, PhD

Massachusetts
Boston University MA, PhD
Hampshire College BS
Harvard College summer program only
Salem State College BS
Suffolk University BS
University of Massachusetts Darmouth BS

Mississippi
University of Southern Mississippi Coastal Science MS, PhD
University of Southern Mississippi Marine Science BS, MS, PhD

New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire - Marine Program BS, MS, PhD

New Jersey
Fairleigh Dickinson University BS
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey BS
Rutgers BS, MS, PhD

New York
Hofstra University BA, MA, MS
Long Island University, Southampton College BS, BA
State University of New York BS
State University of New York - Stony Brook BS, MS, PhD

North Carolina
Duke University BS, MEM (Master of Environmental Management), PhDUniversity of North Carolina Chapel Hill MS, PhD
University of North Carolina Wilmington BS, MS, PhD

Ohio
Bowling Green State University (BGSU) Aquatic and Marine Science BS Biology with an emphasis in marine and freshwater science
Ohio University BS

Oregon
University of Oregon BS(eMB), MS, PhD

Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg University BS
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania BS

Puerto Rico University of Puerto Rico Hunacao BS
University of Puerto Rico Myaguez Campus MS, PhD

Rhode Island
Roger Williams University BS, BA
University of Rhode Island BS

South Carolina
Coastal Carolina University BS, MS
College of Charleston BS, MS
Medical University of South Carolina MS
University of South Carolina BS, MS, PhD

Texas
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi BS, MS
Texas A&M University Galveston BS, MS
University of Texas at Austin BS

Virginia
College of William and Mary MS, PhD
Hampton University BS
Old Dominion University BS, MS, PhD

Washington
Seattle Pacific University BA, BS
University of Washington: Marine Biology BS
University of Washington: School of Aquatic and Fishery Science BS, MS, PhD
Western Washington University BS, MS

Wisconsin
Carroll College BS
Lawrence University BS
University of Wisconsin Superior BS

Graduate School Directory for Marine Sciences »

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Hawaii's coral reefs

Hawaii's coral reefs and nearshore waters are home to more than 7,000 forms of marine life, a quarter of them found nowhere else on Earth. Hawaii’s reefs contribute more than $360 million annually to the state’s economy – that’s $1 million a day.

These reefs are truly a global ocean treasure. Hawai'i has...
More unique marine species than any place of its size in the tropics
One of the last large-scale marine wilderness areas on the planet

Over 300,000 acres of nearshore coral reef
The Nature Conservancy launched its Hawai‘i Marine Program in 2002 to help preserve the Islands’ remarkable marine diversity. The Conservancy’s efforts are focused on restoring the health of our magnificent coral reefs and the unique species that depend on them for their survival.

A Resource at Risk
Despite their biological, economic, and cultural importance, Hawaii’s marine ecosystems continue to be severely degraded by human activity. With a resident population of 1.3 million and 7 million visitors arriving annually – the majority of whom engage in ocean-related activities – Hawaii’s reefs are strained beyond capacity.

The reality is that our ocean faces serious threats, most caused by humans, that have upset the delicate balance of life beneath the waves. Overfishing, the use of indiscriminate fishing practices such as lay gill nets, pollution, runoff, inappropriate recreational use, and the introduction and spread of invasive alien species all jeopardize the health of our reefs.

The good news is that reefs are resilient – if we act in time, we can restore them.

What The Conservancy Is Doing
We are working in collaboration with others to rescue Hawaii's coral reefs – our rainforests of the ocean – from further degradation. Major ongoing efforts include:

Community-based partnerships and programs
Invasive species removal

Reef Fund
Fair Catch responsible fishing campaign



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Save Our Seas

Save Our Seas
How much time do we have left?

Have you read the news? Everyday it's something else pointing to the ignorance of the human race.

Doom and Gloom? Well...Like or or not the planet is ailing and it's the fault of our generation, and our parents, and their parents also...
Our Children will now inherit a wasted planet...Makes ya feel all warm inside eh?

WAKE UP NOW!

Do something....Anything and do it fast.
Tell your neighbors, because time is running out.



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Come on People Get a clue! (PLEASE)

Come on People Get a clue! (PLEASE)

Moves to impose trawling ban stymied
"a stunning example of dysfunctional decision-making and the unwillingness of the world's nations to stand up and just say 'no' to activity that is destroying the global marine environment."

U.N. says 2005 set greenhouse gas record
Report: Seafood faces collapse by 2048


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Clambakes, crabcakes, swordfish steaks and even humble fish sticks could be little more than a fond memory in a few decades.

If current trends of overfishing and pollution continue, the populations of just about all seafood face collapse by 2048, a team of ecologists and economists warns in a report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

"Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world's ocean, we saw the same picture emerging. In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems," said the lead author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
"I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are -- beyond anything we suspected," Worm said.

While the study focused on the oceans, concerns have been expressed by ecologists about threats to fish in the Great Lakes and other lakes, rivers and freshwaters, too.

Worm and an international team spent four years analyzing 32 controlled experiments, other studies from 48 marine protected areas and global catch data from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's database of all fish and invertebrates worldwide from 1950 to 2003.

The scientists also looked at a 1,000-year time series for 12 coastal regions, drawing on data from archives, fishery records, sediment cores and archaeological data.

"At this point 29 percent of fish and seafood species have collapsed -- that is, their catch has declined by 90 percent. It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating," Worm said. "If the long-term trend continues, all fish and seafood species are projected to collapse within my lifetime -- by 2048."
"It looks grim and the projection of the trend into the future looks even grimmer," he said. "But it's not too late to turn this around. It can be done, but it must be done soon. We need a shift from single species management to ecosystem management. It just requires a big chunk of political will to do it."

The researchers called for new marine reserves, better management to prevent overfishing and tighter controls on pollution.

In the 48 areas worldwide that have been protected to improve marine biodiversity, they found, "diversity of species recovered dramatically, and with it the ecosystem's productivity and stability."

While seafood forms a crucial concern in their study, the researchers were analyzing overall biodiversity of the oceans. The more species in the oceans, the better each can handle exploitation.

"Even bugs and weeds make clear, measurable contributions to ecosystems," said co-author J. Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences.

The National Fisheries Institute, a trade association for the seafood industry, does not share the researchers alarm.

"Fish stocks naturally fluctuate in population," the institute said in a statement. "By developing new technologies that capture target species more efficiently and result in less impact on other species or the environment, we are helping to ensure our industry does not adversely affect surrounding ecosystems or damage native species.

Seafood has become a growing part of Americans' diet in recent years. Consumption totaled 16.6 pounds per person in 2004, the most recent data available, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That compares with 15.2 pounds in 2000.

Joshua Reichert, head of the private Pew Charitable Trusts' environment program, pointed out that worldwide fishing provides $80 billion in revenue and 200 million people depend on it for their livelihoods. For more than 1 billion people, many of whom are poor, fish is their main source of protein, he said.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation's National Center for Ecological Synthesis and Analysis.



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Oceans Conference 2008

"Environmentalism is about saving our communities. It is about the power of the community asserting itself on these environmental issues that will directly affect our future generations."

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., SOS Clean Oceans Conference 1997


We hope to enlist the help of like minded people and organizations worldwide so that we as a whole can make a positive change in conservation practices in Hawaii, Polynesia, and the World. Many places in Hawaii are on the verge of becoming protected areas, and we as a whole can work to implement these changes efficiently and positively!
SOS needs your help, please renew your membership or Join SOS to help us promote and educate people from all walks of life about our precious resource, the ocean.


The link below takes you to a Sierra club summary of our state governments action or inaction on an array of environmental issues during this past session. It is in essence a follow up to the "Common Sense Conservation 2008" briefing book compiled by a coalition of HI environmental organizations earlier this year.

http://www.hi.sierraclub.org/legislative/
Mahalo, Adam Roversi, SOS Advisory Board

“Six Degrees Could Change the World”

A new documentary titled “Six Degrees Could Change the World” will be airing on the National Geographic Channel on Sunday 10 February at 8pm ET.

The program, based on a book by the same title by Mark Lymas, sounds like scenes from a dramatic “The Day After” style disaster movie: from 1 degree of temperature increase: “residents flee midwest drought” “alpine villages threatened by frequent rockfalls” “mass bleaching of coral spreads, scientists warn of ecological impact” “hurricane expected to hit Mediterranean coast”… to 6 degrees of temperature increase:

“emergency alert system disbanded” “communications sporadic as major infrastructures collapse” “ocean’s surface becomes poisonous” “cities and towns unsustainable”

The book and documentary are based on the estimation that, during the last 100 years, global warming has increased by about .07 degrees Celsius or 1.2 degrees Farenheit. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), at no other time in the past 1,300 years has our planet been as warm as it is now. Temperature records from the deep ocean suggest that temperatures are now within a degree of their highest levels in 1 million years.

The IPCC estimates that Earth will continue to increase in temperature between 1.4-5.8 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. Though six degrees doesn’t sound like a lot, it’s enough to alter the world as we know it in a devastating way. Much of life will be destroyed. The signs are already there - the snows of Kilimanjaro are melting, glaciers on the Matterhorn in the Alps are melting and releasing huge boulders, and atoll nations in the Pacific are disappearing inch by inch under the water as it rises due to global warming.

This documentary and book describe in vivid detail what will happen if global warming continues unchecked. Check them out! Sunday 10 February at 8pm ET


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Kaaihue Brothers

We Snorkel With Turtles ? On Every Tour!! We travel the South Shore of Kauai; the islands best snorkeling year round and best whale watching (December - May)! Poipu, also known as ?Sunny Poipu? or locally as the South Side, is located only about 20 minutes from the airport in Lihue. With virtually no runoffs or streams, the visibility is exceptional and not affected by rainfall. Most of our tour is spent snorkeling with turtles, exotic fish and various sea life. We snorkel at least 2 locations and give you a guided tour through the water, pointing out eels, lobster, octopus, etc.

The surf on the south side is minimal. The large swells that hit our island in the winter months only affect the north and west shores? not the south! Therefore, if you’re planning on snorkeling on your vacation, or just want to join us for exceptional whale watching, be sure to go with Kaaihue Brothers.



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Philippines Scuba

Dive Instructor Thierry left Mexico last year and went off on an extensive journey to explore the Philippines. Here is a photo essay of his trip.

The Philippines is an archipelago consisting of 7,107 islands. They separate the Celebes Sea and the South China Sea from the Pacific OceanThe archipelago is the second-largest in the world after Indonesia.

The warm, clear waters of the Philippines are known to contain some of the most diverse and beautiful marine life to be found anywhere in the world. Its waters are home to more than 3000 species of fish and 448 species of coral (compared to 700 species of fish and 100 species of coral in the entire Caribbean). But there have also been a lot of mixed reports on the destructive aftermath of dynamite fishing. Many visitors return from the Phillippines dissapointed divers because they didn't encounter the abundant marine life and healthy reefs others talk so enthusiastically about. Although some of the world's most extensive coral reefs are found in the Philippines, they are under such sustained assault by dynamite fishing that marine biologists say the corals are on the verge of utter collapse.

"There are many horrific things going on in the world's oceans, but this tops the list," said John McCosker, the chairman of aquatic biology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. "When divers talked about the world's finest coral reefs 20 years ago, the consensus for the top spot was always the Philippines, but nobody feels that way now." Read more here...

A member of the Dive Global team snorkeled off Boracay island 20 years ago and remembered the reefs looking quite healthy back then. We were curious to find out from Thierry what his general impression was and if it still is a country worthwhile going to for scuba divers. Thierry visited quite a few islands during his stay and traveled by air, bus, ferry, banca (the traditional outrigger boat) and the famous Jeepny to get to the different places on his itinerary. A jeepny, for those of you that don’t know, is a US military vehicle left there in the Second World War. The jeeps have taken on a life of their own. Over the years, the Philippines have decorated these vehicles to their hearts content. You find them everywhere as a local means of transportation and they are considered a national symbol of the country.

Generally speaking, dive sites in the Philippines are known to include walls and drop-offs, coral gardens, drift dives and many rare and truly unique creatures including huge numbers of riggerfish, parrotfish, pennant fish, moray eels, surgeonfish, snappers, groupers, moorish idol, lizardfish, gobies, batfish, lionfish, trumpetfish, pufferfish, filefish, emperors, wrasses, fusiliers and trevallies. Invertebrates from the tiniest transparent shrimp and neon-colored nudibranchs to huge basket sponges adorned with hundreds of multi-colored crinoids can be found.

Anemones, sea cucumbers, starfish and worms reside with vast numbers of hard and soft corals and gorgonian sea fans. Turtles, octopus, cuttlefish, manta rays, eagle rays and sharks make guest appearances in certain areas.Palawan, which is south of Luzon, is considered the best (commercialized) diving destination in the Philippines. Shipwrecks abound in Coron, while excellent coral formations can be found in El Nido. Apo Island and the Tubbataha Reefs, to name a few, are still considered coral paradises.However, if you prefer to stay near Manila, you can go on a day trip to either Batangas (Anilao or Nasugbu) or Mindoro (Puerto Galera). Boracay is also very popular and easy to reach by a direct flight from Manila. It offers some amazing drift dives on walls and the beaches as positively stunning!

The island has become more commercialized over the years however and isn't as idyllic as it used to be.Thierry had an amazing time and even though he experienced some great dives in other locations, the highlight of his trip definitely was a visit to Malapascua Island which is known for a dive location where regular encounters with thresher sharks are pretty much guaranteed. Malapascua Island is in the Visayan Sea and belongs to Cebu. Cebu is easy to reach but this area has not yet been over-commercialized in diving terms and is considered one of the better exciting and off-the-beaten track diving destinations in the Philippines.

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