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As promised here are some pictures of the whale shark tagging expedition 2009. This is the microlight.

This is the flight crew. Alexis is the pilot and he is in the middle, his girlfriend Emma and Chris the cameraman on either side of him. The team fly for 3 - 4 hours per day and do an amazing job helping us!

This is the boat we used called Melia (daughter of Neptune). It belongs to Southern Cross Scuba. SXS has several dive bases, one of which is at Aqualand Watersports Centre next to Pinewood Village Hotel on Galu Kinondo beach where we meet each morning at 10am.

And here are the lucky people swimming with the biggest fish on the planet! An experience you will never forget

We have circled the shark for you. They are not as easy to spot as you think! Best is when they are swimming over a sandy patch like in the picture here.

Meet Bumble, adopted by Peter and Philipa Gibbon, Kenya’s first acoustically tagged shark. May he bumble on peacefully for many years to come and enjoy a long and happy life.

It is the start of a new week and we hope we will see more sharks than we did last week! The sightings have been very poor with no sharks seen for 6 days. We don’t really know why but we suspect it may be due to the unsettled weather we have been experiencing. The sea is a lot rougher than it should be at this time of year and the wind direction keeps changing. Climate-wise nothing is really as it should be but then isn’t that true of so many parts of the world these days.

Despite the disappointing number of sharks, we remain positive. We will keep trying and the huge numbers of people interested in our work keeps us motivated. We have had full boats every day. The media interest has been immense and we have 4 different film crews in the past few days. Reuters, AP, KTN and The Standard have all covered the expedition.

Last night the film crew from Australia and our lead scientist Dr Rachel Graham arrived. We are set for a good weeks worth of work here in Diani. If we don’t see sharks here, we will move the expedition further north where there have been sightings.

We are carrying out the longest and most coherent aeriel survey ever to be done for whale sharks in Kenya. Whatever happens we will learn something and continue to work hard for whale shark conservation in Kenya.

This week the boat is booked exclusively for the Australian film crew to film for their documentary. We are so excited that they are here! Volker gets the opportunity to work alongside one of the top underwater videographers in the world. From Friday the boat is fully booked over the weekend and the last weekend of the expedition is almost fully booked as well. We continue to be amazed and encouraged by the number of people who come and support our work. We are determined and 110% committed to see it through.

I will keep you posted as the week progresses.

Another cracking day with 3 sightings and 1 tagged.

I have wonderful sponsors lined up for our 3rd tag and 4th tag, after which it’s anybodys game so please help us by sponsoring a shark! Professor Dan Reinstein and the London Vision Clinic have sponsored the next tag. Thank you so much Professor Dan! And Camp Kenya and Camps International have sponsored the 4th acoustic tag we put out.

Thank you so much Camps!

Expedition 2009 is off to a flying start. With 15 eager participants, a filmcrew from the Nation and a KWS team on board the anticipation was high as they all set off. Volker and I were both wide awake at 5am too excited to sleep.

I watched them set off wondering how the day would turn out. Whale sharks were spotted on 20 Feb by divers and we have a microlight as air support (I can hear it droning overhead as I write this) so all the signs were good. But you never know! And I can never relax until I get the call from Volker -

”WHALE SHARK TAGGED!!!”

Less than an hour into the first expedition they found a whale shark, everyone swam with it and it was tagged with Kenya’s first acoustic tag. This tag was sponsored by Philippa Gibbon (Gwili from the Colobus Trust’s mum). Philippa sponsored our first 2 acoustic tags as presents for Gwili’s dad and uncle.

So a BIG thank you to Philippa - her acoustic tag is finally deployed and well done to Volker and everyone on the expedition.

This is the mournful picture of Volker’s fins from the acoustic expedition we did in April last year? No sharks were spotted and Volker didn’t get a chance to even get in the water!

We are already a far cry from that and we’ve only just started!!!!!

Please donate and help us keep the expedition going.

The news filtered through the village, in disbelieving whispers that a dugong”nguva” had been caught in one of fishermen gillnets. There was a palpable but restrained sense of excitement in Kiunga village. Then fishermen confirmed and identified whose nets had caught the dugong there was a pandemonium in the otherwise sleepy village. Everyone who could walk (mostly women and children) made a beeline to the fish landing site to wait for the mysterious and extremely rare dugong. Click here to read more.