Fig 1.
Spatial distribution of sightings data collected through Wildbook for Whale Sharks in the Western Central Atlantic Ocean during 1999–2015.
Movements between whale shark sightings within the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, including Honduras (HN), Belize (BZ), Mexico (MX), United States of America (US), and the greater Caribbean region (CRB) based on photo-identification data.
Fig 2.
Discovery curve for newly identified whale sharks from the Western Central Atlantic Ocean (1999–2015).
Table 1.
Whale shark photo-identification records for Western Central Atlantic Ocean from 1999–2015 with details of new records and resightings from previous years.
Fig 3.
Monthly distribution of whale shark encounters in a) Honduras, b) Belize, c) Mexico, and d) US waters.
Fig 4.
Length frequency distribution for a) all identified individuals and b) individuals that exhibited movement (n = 70) within the Western Central Atlantic region from 1999–2015.
Fig 5.
Time-at-liberty (years) distribution of whale sharks in the Wildbook for Whale Sharks photo-identification library from the Western Central Atlantic Ocean.
Table 2.
Summary statistics of whale sharks tracked for over 10 years via photo-identification records in the Western Central Atlantic Ocean from 1999–2015.
Lag refers to the time period between sightings. Country abbreviations include: Honduras (HN), Belize (BZ), Mexico (MX), and United States of America (US).
Fig 6.
Probability of resighting an individual whale shark over time (LIR; mean +- S.D.) within the Western Central Atlantic compared to the best fitting model (dark line).
Table 3.
Model comparisons for lagged identification rate of whale sharks throughout the entire study area (A-H) and within/between areas (I-L).
Fig 7.
Probability of resighting an individual whale shark over time (LIR; mean ± S.D.) within the same location (green circle) or a different location (red asterisk) in the Western Central Atlantic compared to the best fitting model (dark line).
Table 4.
Transition probabilities amongst aggregations sites in the Western Central Atlantic.