First documented movement of a whale shark between Madagascar and Seychelles

First documented movement of a whale shark between Madagascar and SeychellesOn  December , the Madagascar Whale Shark Project and Marine Conservation Society Seychelles documented the first confirmed movement of an Endangered whale shark Rhincodon typus between Madagascar and Seychelles.The record was established through a collaborative comparison of photo-identification databases, providing information for regional whale shark management in the western Indian Ocean.Since , the Madagascar Whale Shark Project has identified  individual juvenile whale sharks around Nosy Be, north-west Madagascar, through long-term photoidentification involving Malagasy students, tourism operators and citizen scientists.However, sightings in Nosy Be declined from  individuals in  to  in .The Marine Conservation Society Seychelles recorded an increase in whale shark sightings in the Seychelles during -, reversing a decline in its estimated population size from - in  to just  in .These contrasting trends prompted renewed photo-identification comparisons.In November , the Marine Conservation Society Seychelles shared  identification photographs from .Using the semi-automated software IS, these images were matched against the complete Madagascar whale shark catalogue by the Madagascar Whale Shark Project team.Both organizations confirmed that one shark-MD- (Mistral), first recorded on  November  as a . m long male feeding off Nosy Be, Madagascar-was subsequently photographed off Mahé, Seychelles, on  August , where it was estimated to be  m in length.This is the first resighting of a whale shark from Madagascar in another western Indian Ocean country.The estimated , km movement of Mistral adds to the limited number of confirmed multi-country resightings STELLA DIAMANT 1 (stella@madawhalesharks.