OUR PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed science

Use the tabs to find a list of our scientific publications under key species or themes.

Exploring the wildlife value orientation of locals working in community-based marine wildlife tourism in the Philippines. (2021) Ziegler, J., Araujo, G., Labaja, J., Snow, S., Ponzo, A., Rollins, R., and Dearden, P. Tour. Mar. Environ. 16, 1

Microplastics in fecal samples of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) and from surface water in the Philippines. (2021) Yong, M.M.H., Leistenschneider, C., Miranda, J.A. et al. Micropl.&Nanopl. 1, 17.

Conservation of whale sharks. (2021) Pierce, S., Grace, M., and Araujo, G. Whale Sharks. In: Dove ADM, Pierce SJ (eds) Whale sharks: biology, ecology, and conservation. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, p 129–1152

Redefining provisioning in marine wildlife tourism. J. Ecotourism. (2021) Meyer, L., Barry, C., Araujo, G., Barnett, A., Brunnschweiler, J.M., Chin, A., Gallagher, A., Healy, T., Kock, A., Newsome, D., Ponzo, A., and Huveneers, C..

In-water observations highlight the effects of provisioning on whale shark behaviour at the world’s largest whale shark tourism destination. Legaspi, C., et al., Royal Society Open Science 2020

Donsol: an important reproductive habitat for the world’s largest fish Rhincodon typus? Miranda et al., Journal of Fish Biology 2020

Changes in diving behaviour and habitat use of provisioned whale sharks: implications for management. Araujo, G., et al., Scientific Reports 2020

Scarring patterns of whale sharks Rhincodon typus at a provisioning site in the Philippines. Penketh et al., Aquatic Conservation, Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 2020.

Whale sharks Rhincodon typus get cleaned by the blue-streak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus and the moon wrasse Thalassoma lunare in the Philippines. Araujo et al., Journal of Fish Biology 2020

Can ecotourism change community attitudes towards conservation? Ziegler, J., Araujo, G., Labaja, J., Snow, S., King, J.N., Ponzo, A., Rollins, R., Dearden, P. Oryx 2020

Getting the most out of citizen science for endangered species such as whale shark. Araujo, G., Ismail, A.R., McCann, C., McCann, D., Legaspi, C.G., Snow, S., Labaja, J., Manjaji-Matsumoto, M., & Ponzo, A. Journal of Fish Biology 2020

Measuring perceived crowding in the marine environment: Perspectives from a mass tourism ‘swim-with’ whale shark site in the Philippines. Ziegler, J. A., Araujo, G., Labaja, J., Legaspi, C., Snow, S., Ponzo, A., Rollins, R., & Dearden, P. Tourism in Marine Environments, Volume 14, Number 4, 2019

Observations of microzooplankton in the vicinity of whale shark Rhincodon typus aggregation sites in Oslob, Cebu and Pintuyan, S. Leyte, Philippines. Yap-Dejeto L., Cera, A., Labaja, J., Palermo, J. D., Ponzo, A., & Araujo, G. Philippines Journal of Natural Sciences. 2019

Photo-ID and telemetry highlight a global whale shark hotspot in Palawan, Philippines. Araujo, G., Agustines, A., Tracey, B., Snow, S., Labaja, J., & Ponzo, A. Scientific Reports. 2019

Whale shark tourism: impacts on coral reefs in the Philippines. Wong, C.W.M., Conti-Jerpe, I., Raymundo, L.J., Dingle, C., Araujo, G., Ponzo, A., & Baker, D.M. Environmental Management. 2018

Long-term photo-identification reveals the population dynamics and strong site fidelity of adult whale sharks to the coastal waters of Donsol, Philippines. McCoy, E., Burce, R., David, D., Aca, E.Q., Hardy, J., Labaja, J., Snow, S.J., Ponzo, A., & Araujo, G. Frontiers Marine Science. 2018

Satellite tracking of juvenile whale sharks in the Sulu and Bohol Seas, Philippines. Araujo, G., Rohner, C. A., Labaja, J., Conales, S. J., Snow, S.J., Murray, R., Pierce, S.J., & Ponzo, A. PeerJ 6:e5231; 2018

A guilty pleasure: Tourist perspectives on the ethics of feeding whale sharks in Oslob, Philippines. Ziegler, J.A., Silberg, J.N., Araujo, G., Labaja, J., Ponzo, A., Rollins, R., & Dearden, P. Tourism Management 68. 2018

• Applying the precautionary principle when feeding an endangered species for marine tourism, Ziegler, J.A, Silberg, J.N, Araujo, G., Labaja, J., Ponzo, A., Rollins, R., Dearden, P. Tourism Management 72. 2019

• Using long-term integrated research programs to improve whale shark tourism at Oslob, Philippines. Ziegler, J.A, Silberg, J.N., Araujo, G., Labaja, J., Ponzo, A., Rollins, R., & Dearden, P. Tourism Management 74. 2019

iDNA at sea: recovery of whale shark (Rhincodon typus) mitochondrial DNA sequences from the whale shark copepod (Pandarus rhincodonicus) confirms global population structure. Meekan, M., Austin, C.M., Tan, M.H., Wei, N.V., Miller, A., Pierce, S.J., Rowat, D., Stevens, G., Davies, T.K., Ponzo, A., & Gan, H.M. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2017

Undersea constellations: the gobal biology of an Endangered marine megavertebrate further informed through Citizen Science. Norman, B.M., Holmberg, J.A., Arzoumanian, Z., Reynolds, S.D., Wilson, R.P., Rob, D., Pierce, S.J., Gleiss, A.C., de la Parra, R., Galvan, B., Ramirez-Macias, D., Robinson, D., Fox, S., Graham, R., Rowat, D., Potenski, M., Levine, M., Mckinney, J.A., Hoffmayer, E., Dove, A.D.M., Hueter, R., Ponzo, A., Araujo, G., Aca, E., David, D., Rees, R., Duncan, A., Rohner, C.A., Prebble, C.E.M., Hearn, A., Acuna, D., Berumen, M.L., Vázquez, A., Green, J., Bach, S.S., Schmidt, J.V., Beatty, S.J., & Morgan, D.L. BioScience. 2017

Feeding the world’s largest fish: highly variable whale shark residency patterns at a provisioning site in the Philippines. Thomson J.A., Araujo, G., Labaja, J., McCoy, E., Murray, R., & Ponzo, A. Royal Society Open Science. 2017

Assessing the impacts of tourism on the world's largest fish Rhincodon typus at Panaon Island, Southern Leyte, Philippines. Araujo G, Vivier F, Labaja JJ, Hartley D, & Ponzo A. Aquatic Conservation: Marine Freshwater Ecosystems. 2017

Population structure, residency patterns and movements of whale sharks in Southern Leyte, Philippines: results from dedicated photo-ID and citizen science. Araujo, G., Snow, S.J., So, C.L., Labaja, M.J.J., Murray, R., Colucci, A., & Ponzo, A.; Aquatic Conservation. 2016.

Learning from a provisioning site: code of conduct compliance and behaviour of whale sharks in Oslob, Cebu, Philippines. Schleimer, A., Araujo, G., Penketh, L., Heath, A., McCoy, E., Labaja, J., Lucey, A., & Ponzo, A.; Peer J. 2015

Population structure and residency patterns of whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, at a provisioning site in Cebu, Philippines. Araujo, G., Lucey, A., Labaja, M.J.J., So, C.L., Snow, S.J., & Ponzo, A.; Peer J. 2014.

Global Connections for the Medical Treatment of Sea Turtles. (2021) Polyak, M., Petros, C., Ponzo, A., McGhee, A., and McLellen, F. Status of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWOT) Report, Vol. XVI.

In-water methods reveal population dynamics of a green turtle Chelonia mydas foraging aggregation in the Philippines. Araujo, G., Legaspi, C.G.M., Freber, S., Murray, R., Burdett, K., Grundy, S., Labaja, J., Snow, S., Yaptinchay, A., Ponzo, A. Inter Research Science. 2019

Using minimally invasive techniques to determine green sea turtle Chelonia mydas life-history parameters. Araujo, G., Montgomery, J., Pahang, K., Labaja, J., Murray, R., Ponzo, A.; Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 2016

Distribution of the reef manta ray Mobula alfredi and the oceanic manta ray Mobula birostris in the Philippines: a collaborative effort for conservation Joshua Rambahiniarison, Ariana Agustines, Konstantinos Alexopoulos, Gonzalo Araujo, Asia O. Armstrong, Shannon Arnold, Aldrin Barruga, Titus Cañete, Segundo Conales Jr., Kymry Delijero, Nonie P. Enolva, Anna L. Flam, Eliya Keane, Jessica Labaja, Christine G. Legaspi, Calum Murie, Ryan Murray, Simon P. Oliver, Simon J. Pierce, Alessandro Ponzo, Christoph A. Rohner, Rosanna Schifferer, Sally Snow, Martina Spakowski, Guy M. W. Stevens, Timur Tilgel, Jessica N. C. Wong, Arnel Andrew Yaptinchay, Yotam Barr, 2022

Citizen science sheds light on the cryptic ornate eagle ray Aetomylaeus vespertilio. Araujo G., et al., Aquatic Conservation: Marine Freshwater Ecosystems 2020

Genome-wide data for effective conservation of manta and devil ray species. Hosegood, J., Humble, E., Ogden, R., de Bruyn, M., Creer, S., Stevens, G., Abudaya, M., Bassos-Hull, K., Bonfil, R., Fernando, D., Foote, A.D., Hipperson, H., Jabado, R.W., Kaden, J., Moazzam, M., Peel, L., Pollett, S., Ponzo, A., Poortvliet, M., Salah, J., Senn, H., Stewart, J., Wintner, S., Carvalho, G.. bioRxiv. 2019

DNA metabarcoding assays reveal a diverse prey assemblage for Mobula rays in the Bohol Sea, Philippines. Bessey, C., Jarman, S.N., Stat, M., Rohner, C.A., Bunce, M., Koziol, A., Power, M., Rambahiniarison, J.M., Ponzo, A., Richardson, A.J. and Berry, O. Ecology and evolution, 9(5). 2019

A regional perspective on the Mobulid Ray interactions with surface fisheries in the Indian Ocean. Shahid, U., Kiszka, J., Moazzam, M., Fernando, D., Rambahiniarison, J. and Jabado, R. Fourteenth Session of IOTC Working Party on Ecosystem and Bycatch (WPEB14). 2018.

Life History, Growth, and Reproductive Biology of Four Mobulid Species in the Bohol Sea, Philippines. Rambahiniarison J.M., Lamoste M.J., Rohner C.A., Murray R., Snow S., Labaja J., Araujo G. and Ponzo A. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2018

Occurrence of the rare and Endangered Ornate Eagle Ray, Aetomylaeus vespertilio (Bleeker, 1852) (Chondrichthyes, Myliobatidae), at a remote marine protected area in the Philippines. Araujo, A., Snow, S.J., Cornish, A., Murray, R., Delijero, K., Ponzo, A., Dygico, M. Check List. 2018

Trophic overlap in mobulid rays: insights from stable isotope analysis. Stewart, J.D., Rohner, C.A., Araujo, G., Avila, J., Fernando, D., Forsberg, K., Ponzo, A., Rambahiniarison, J.M., Kurle, C.M., Semmens, B.X. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 2017

Mobulid rays feed on euphausiids in the Bohol Sea. Rohner C.A., Burgess K.B., Rambahiniarison J.M., Stewart J.D., Ponzo A., Richardson A.J. Royal Society Open Science. 2017

First Records of the reef manta ray Manta alfredi in the Bohol Sea, Philippines, and its implication for conservation. Rambanhiniarison, J., Araujo, G., Lamoste, M.J., Labaja, J., Snow, S., Ponzo, A. Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity. 2016

Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks. MacNeil, A., et al., Nature, 2020

Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park: the first comprehensive elasmobranch assessment reveals global hotspot for reef sharks. R. Murray, S. Conales Jr., G. Araujo, J., Labaja, S. Snow, S. Pierce, A., Songco, A. Ponzo; Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity. October 2018

The Need for a Code of Professional Ethics for Marine Conservation Communicators. Erikson, L.E., Snow, S., Uddin, M.K., Savoie, G.M., Front. Mar. Sci., 11. June 2019