A look at Qatar’s whale shark population
Qatar’s waters host some of the largest gatherings of the planet’s biggest fish, the whale sharks.
One of the largest gatherings of whale sharks, the planet’s biggest fish, can be found just a couple of hours off the Qatari coast.
Hundreds of whale sharks come to Qatar’s waters to feed on an abundance of fish eggs.
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“The biggest we recorded by drone is 350, with one shot, but in our database, we have more than 600, as a record,” Mohammed al Jaidah, head of the Whale Shark Research Project, told Al Jazeera. “It’s a world record.”
Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker got exclusive access to head out to sea to find these whale sharks, something the public is not allowed yet to do, although it is being considered.
Research had been going on into this whale shark population since 2010 but was put on hold in the last few years.
Local teams are keen to get things moving again.
“The main thing in this area is the temperature,” al Jaidah explained. “If you go five or six kilometres (3.7 miles) out of this area, the water temperature is between 32-34, average 32 degrees centigrade (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit). In this area here, between 27-28 (82.4 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s the best or the ideal temperature for fish to breed. So, when they breed or spawn here, the shark comes for the protein you know, they come specifically for the fish egg, caviar, you know.”
Part of the shark family, whale sharks are filter feeders and are categorised as endangered.
This video was edited by Al Jazeera NewsFeed’s Katya Bohdan.