As whale sharks assemble in coastal regions to spend substantial time in surface waters, experts theorised collisions with ships could be causing substantial whale shark deaths. Previously, there was no way of monitoring this threat.

Scientists from 50 international research institutions and universities tracked both whale shark and ship movements across the globe to pinpoint areas of risk and potential collisions. Satellite-tracked data from nearly 350 whale sharks was submitted to the Global Shark Movement Project, conducted by MBA researchers.

A global breakthrough in recording manta ray information has been made by an Auckland University doctoral candidate. In a study entitled “How Big Is That Manta Ray?” published in Drones, Edy Setyawan outlined how a drone camera, with the addition of a PVC pipe in the ocean, can be utilised to accurately measure the world’s largest ray species. “I could see that from the drone there was some size variation, some mantas, they are bigger than the others,” said Setyawan. “It’s quite cheap using a small drone, but it can give us a big impact on manta ray conservation.”

In the study, researchers reviewed some of the ground­breaking and recent coral-bleaching discoveries from an ecological, molecular and physiological viewpoint.