Whale shark landings in Indonesian artisanal shark and ray fisheries

Abstract

Comprehensive surveys of the chondrichthyan catches landed at various localities in eastern Indonesia were conducted between April 2001 and October 2005 to obtain detailed catch composition data from local, artisanal fisheries. A total of 144 chondrichthyan species representing 36 families were identified in this study, including the whale shark Rhincodon typus. Of the 270 individual surveys conducted, only one specimen of R. typus was recorded, at the fish landing site of Kedonganan in southern Bali in April 2004. A further four whale sharks were caught by the fishers at this site in the three subsequent months. All of these sharks were finned at sea and the carcasses not retained. Three other whale sharks had been landed by shark processors at this same site in Bali and one was landed near the fish landing site of Tanjung Luar in east Lombok in August 2005. It is highly likely that whale sharks are also landed, albeit irregularly, by the numerous other artisanal fish landing sites throughout Indonesia. However, calculating an approximate number taken on an annual basis within Indonesia would be very difficult, if not impossible to determine.