Students have whale of a time

Representatives from Ecocean were special guests at St Luke’s College last week.

Ecocean is a not-for-profit organisation, primary established to undertake research on the world’s biggest fish – the whale shark.

Development manager Kim Hands said they were on the look out for citizen scientists as well as spreading information about the threatened species.

Karratha was a stop off on a trip the team taken along the WA coast.

Students from Year 11 biology, Year 9 environmental science and Year 8 were treated to a talk given by Ms Hands as well as a look at the giant whale shark up close.

Year 11 students also added a coral trout painting to the Ecocean trailer which had been contributed to from students around the state.

Ms Hands said the whale shark roadtrip came about after whale shark sightings started happening further south than thought.

“Whale sharks are famous from Ningaloo, everyone knows they come in there every April to July, but Ecocean has been getting people calling us up over the last couple of years and saying they’ve been seeing them in other places in WA,” she said.

Ecocean encourage anyone who has seen a whale shark in the Pilbara area before to let the organisation know.

They ask for date, location and GPS details if known and a photo is a bonus.

To register a sighting please go to www.whaleshark.org.au and click on the ‘Seen a whale shark?’ link.