The Qatar Forum on Whale Shark Conservation 2023 will be held on May 22 and 23, 2023, at the Aquatic Research Centre in Ras Matbakh, and is being organised by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) in collaboration with Unesco.
The forum will have eleven experts and professionals from Qatar and abroad in the domains of marine environment, aquatics, and whale sharks. It will also feature a number of seminars and sessions with many studies and research papers on the ways to safeguard the endangered whale sharks. Participants at the event will also include GCC representatives.
Farhoud Al Hajri, Manager of the Department of Public Relations and Communication at the Ministry, said during a press conference yesterday that the forum will serve as a gathering place for numerous local and foreign researchers interested in the conservation of marine life and its biodiversity as well as experts in marine sciences and whale sharks.
The symposium was the second phase in studying whale sharks, according to Mohamed Al Khanji, the head of the organising committee and director of the Wildlife Development Department. He explained that knowing the research of adjacent nations is essential to arriving at more thorough conclusions.
According to Al Khanji, the event is particularly significant to Qatar since it is known for having the largest or second-largest concentration of whale sharks in the world, notably in the Al Shaheen oil field. Every year, starting in April and continuing until September or the middle of October, whale sharks like to congregate in Qatar in bunches.
Global records were broken in 2020 when Qatar's whale shark population topped 600. In more recent times, 400–500 people were often observed each area.
Therefore, the MoECC sees the forum as a place where local and international experts interested in marine life conservation may gather to exchange their most recent research results on the habits, behaviours, and distribution of whale sharks. The event will also promote the creation of coalitions amongst interested parties and the creation of an action plan.
