The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) said that until May 2024 whale sharks in the Cenderawasih Bay National Park Area (TNTC), Kwaistore, Nabire Regency, Central Papua had reached 203.
Penggendali Ekosistem Habitat Seksi Pengelolaan TNTC Wilayah 1 Kwatisore, Sumaryono mengatakan data awal populasi minyai berjumlah 195 ekor namun setelah dilakukan monitoring bersama pada November 2023 pihaknya mencatat adanya individu baru sehingga jumlah mencapai 203 berasin whales per Mei 2024.
"We hope that in the future this whale shark population can continue to grow," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, June 13.
According to Sumaryono, in addition to the monitoring program, conservation efforts at TNTC have also been followed by the process of marking whales to record and process whale shark behavior data while in the waters.
"Where one of the data utilization is to study the migration route of whale sharks in the Papua sea waters so that from this data we will adjust it to the shipping route for the PT Pertamina International Shipping (PIS) ship in the Papua region," he said.
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He explained that with data on the whale shark migration route, it is hoped that the schedule once the ship sailed on the route would not interfere with the migration of the protected mammal.
"Hopefully this data can be accessed by other ships to maintain the marine ecosystem," he said.
Based on data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), currently whale sharks are one of the endangered animals since 2016.
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