The Walnut dive boat
The Walnut breathes fire........Hot news
Hi All
As people that have stayed here before know our dive boat the Walnut is a great dive boat, well now it is also a FAST dive boat.
It has had a brand new engine put in it, a 420hp Yanmar engine, it is now one of the fastest on the island, Swin our boat captain is yet to stop smiling.
Other improvements that have been made are our wonderful new dock and kit room, we are also buying all new equipment for anyone that needs to rent.
We would like to thank all our guests that have stayed with us so far this year and the compliments that they have paid us, and our new improvements.
Deep Blue in the News
Deep Blue in the News
Scientists: Whale Sharks Cooperatively Tracked Through Honduras, Belize And Mexico
http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=60108917245
Utila, Honduras (Jun 18, 2007 15:24 EST) In the aftermath of another Whale Shark death at Georgia Aquarium, here is a group of researchers that are using ground breaking technology to achieve real research results with out the aid of financial backing from large companies, and are getting results in the wild.
Scientists have suspected for years that whale sharks (Rhindcodon typus) travel from the island of Utila, Honduras up through the waters of Belize to Mexico as part of a long, annual migration, but no individual whale shark has ever been cooperatively tracked by researchers in each country. Different research teams may see the same individuals along the route year after year, but never before has a team of scientists “connected the dots” on this spotted animal to track them between a series of different research stations. In 2007, broad cooperative efforts between researchers and ecotourists in the three countries are producing a more detailed picture of the behavior of these rare and “gentle giants”.
Tracking whale sharks isn’t easy. Traditional satellite and archival tags are expensive and have a very high failure rate that may be the result of the great depths that whale sharks can regularly dive to. These tags also generate data over only a few months, which is insufficient to create the long-term histories needed to model this population. To overcome these barriers, biologists and resort owners in Honduras, Belize, and Mexico have begun working within the ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library to coordinate data collection and to use its NASA-inspired software to analyze photographs collected from tourists and research staff and to identify individual whale sharks based on their natural spot patterning. The results of their efforts proved to be immediately fruitful.
Two whale sharks have recently been linked between all three research stations, an unprecedented achievement in whale shark research. Shark BZ-001 has been logged twelve times since 2002 and was recorded in all three locations in 2007. Shark MXA-008 has also been sighted at each station a total of seven times since 2004. Several other sharks have been directly linked between Utila, Honduras and the Gladden Spit Marine Reserve, Belize over the past three years, and the inclusion of Mexico in the 2007 research will no doubt create more matches. These results represent the first cooperative, multi-national, and multi-year effort to track whale sharks over their long migration routes and to share collected data.
The roots of this cooperative effort began three years ago with two resorts in Utila, Deep Blue Utila and the Utila Lodge , leading independent whale shark research programs. Steve Fox and Jasmine Dale, of Deep Blue joined the ECOCEAN Library in 2005 and began contributing data collected by tourists and visiting researchers to a global database of whale shark information. Subsequent conferences and face-to-face meetings at Deep Blue Utila not only united the resorts in their efforts, adding Dale Forbes and his many years of data from Utila Lodge to the work, but also introduced members of the regional research community, such as Lisa Carne of Belize, to the potential for better science through cooperation. In 2007, Rafael de la Parra from Mexico’s Domino Project joined, contributing data that linked photos from all three countries to individual whale sharks migrating through their waters.
Many more discoveries are expected as this “brain trust” of resort owners, divers, conservationists, and marine biologists unite to study these rare and beautiful sharks. Because whale sharks are currently listed as “Vulnerable to Extinction” by the IUCN , this fresh approach to cooperative conservation and science may be just what this migratory animal needs to protect it along its annual journeys in the Caribbean.
Amazing Whale Shark Season
This is quite a long entry but please read it all as there is some fantastic news.
Amazing Whale Shark Season
This is quite a long entry but please read it all as there is some fantastic news.
It has been an Amazing Whale Shark season here in Utila, firstly I would like to thank all the guests over our Whale Shark Research period for their enthusiasm and compliments.
I would also like to thank all our guest speakers that we had during this period Lisa Carnes Marine Biologist from Belize, she has worked with the Whale Sharks at Gladden Spit for many years,
Rafael de la Parra who helps run the Domino Project in Mexico www.domino.conanp.gob.mx and is instrumental in arranging this years International Whale Shark Conference in Mexico, see details about it here http://www.domino.conanp.gob.mx/conf2007.htm
Both Rafael, Mexico and Lisa, Belize are now official representatives for www.Ecocean.org
And I must thank Jason Holmberg of www.Ecocean.org and his bride to be Melissa for visiting us, giving some great talks and showing us all the new developments that have been released or are about to be released in the Ecocean library, and also to congratulate Jason on receiving the Peter Benchley ( yes the man who wrote Jaws) Award from the Shark Research Institute.
Highlights of the season, well I there were so many but one that I do not think our guests or the researchers will forget is seeing 2 Whale Sharks and while they were swimming with them for 20 minutes having Mobula Mantas swimming around them and a huge Marlin, days do not get any better, that really is a moment in life.
Another person I really must thank is Dr Rachel Graham who has supplied acoustic receivers and tags for Utila, which are currently being deployed around the island, she is doing some amazing work on the Meso American reef for Whale Sharks and in other countries around the world.
Lastly thanks must go to my crew who have been helping to deploy the acoustic receivers, Matt Awty, Isabelle (Zab) Foisey, Jeff Brookes, and Dan Cain of Funky Fat Fish productions who has filmed it all, and at the moment is making a film about the Whale Sharks on Utila, see this link to preview the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXLtLN0i2sU and after spending 5 years on the island, creating some amazing underwater films he and his wife Jules are moving on, we all wish them the best in the future
