State News

Encore: Citizen-Scientists Help Researchers Better Understand Endangered Whale Sharks

WGCU | By Julie Glenn,

Published November 28, 2018 at 1:00 PM EST

New information about whale shark behavior, biology, and ecology is being released today in the scientific journal BioScience. The 22 year long citizen-science effort has given researchers a whole new understanding of the global behavior of endangered whale sharks. We’re joined by one of those researchers. Dr. Robert Hueter is a Senior Scientist and Director of the Center for Shark Research, and the Perry W. Gilbert Chair in Shark Research, at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota.

The project, called Wildbook for Whale Sharks, invites divers, boaters, and ecotourists to submit photos of whale sharks’ unique spot patterns to an online database, helping scientists identify individual animals. The effort has helped describe 20 hotspots for whale sharks around the globe and has expanded scientists’ understanding of these mysterious sharks’ lives.

State News

Julie Glenn

Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

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Mike Kiniry

Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.

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Rachel Iacovone

RachelIacovoneis a reporter and associate producer ofGulf Coast LiveforWGCU News. Rachel came toWGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.

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