ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Fish Sci.
Sec. Elasmobranch Science
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frish.2025.1414859
This article is part of the Research TopicWomen in Elasmobranch ScienceView all 4 articles
Trophic and feeding ecology of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) using bulk stable isotope analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Marine Megafauna Research Center, Praia do Tofo, Mozambique
- 2Marine Megafauna Foundation, Truckee, California, United States
- 3France Énergies Marines, Plouzané, France
- 4National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, England, United Kingdom
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Despite their size, relatively passive behaviour and commercial significance, knowledge of the behavioural ecology of whale sharks is still limited. The difficulty of tracking individual animals at sea encourages the use of retrospective biochemical approaches such as stable isotope analysis. Whale sharks at Mafia Island in Tanzania form a comparatively small and resident aggregation that has been monitored for several successive years. As such, they provide a rare opportunity to study the biochemical changes in individuals over time. Here we sampled 53% of the identified individuals at the time of collection over a multi-year period. Stable isotope data suggest that whale sharks at Mafia Island are predominantly feeding within the local food web at a trophic level consistent with what is currently known about the species' general feeding ecology. Isotope data also show a range of individual feeding strategies within the local aggregation with some sex and size-related differences in feeding strategy, but a relatively constrained isotopic niche area at the population level. We call for additional research and highlight the importance of a multi-faceted approach incorporating diverse biochemical and tracking techniques to more accurately understand the long-term feeding ecology of this endangered and charismatic mega-planktivore.
Keywords: isotopes1, diet2, planktivore3, elasmobranch4, Tanzania5
Received: 09 Apr 2024; Accepted: 23 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Prebble, Couturier, Rohner, Pierce and Trueman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Clare Prebble, Marine Megafauna Research Center, Praia do Tofo, Mozambique
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