Bruce Hodgson , Bruce R. Hodgson

Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2026, Vol. 16, No.   
Received: 01 Jan., 1970    Accepted: 01 Jan., 1970    Published: 13 Oct., 2026

The main objectives of the study are that as whale sharks are planktivorous fish, they migrate over long distances in tropical areas of the world to find zooplankton food generated at seamounts and by the island mass effect where upwelling promotes ecosystem production. Whale shark occurrence in the six main areas are discussed systematically in terms of the various causes of elevated zooplankton by processes such as upwelling by the Indo-Pacific throughflow (ITF) currents around the Indonesian islands and far-field effects on the Indian ocean to Africa. That encouraged investigation of sustainable management of the six main accumulation areas in Southwestern Taiwan, two areas in Indonesia, Caribbean Sea, Ningaloo at Eastern Indian Ocean, Western Australia and Galapagos, Ecuador, eastern Pacific Ocean, particularly the Indonesian and Galapagos breeding areas. Hence, whale shark relationships are investigated for weight with total length, and age in years with average total length and weight estimated by the innovative doubling time method using Ecopath model fish production characteristics. That gave similar results with published growth rates, including the von Bertalanffy equation, because the Ecopath model ecosystem conditions reasonably described the whale shark growth rates. The reported and expected migrations in the tropical Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans are described, leading to suggested further research on whale shark production. Furthermore, due to the amount of food energy spent looking for food, the ecosystem conditions indicated their biomass and biological production are too low to support fishing, so it was suggested all whale sharks be protected.