Wound healing is important for marine taxa such as elasmobranchs, which can incur a range of natural and anthropogenic wounds throughout their life history. There is evidence that this group shows a high capacity for external wound healing. However, anthropogenic wounds may become more frequent due to increasing commercial and recreational marine activities. Whale sharks are particularly at risk of attaining injuries given their use of surface waters and wildlife tourism interest. There is limited understanding as to how whale sharks recover from injuries, and often insights are confined to singular opportunistic observations. The present study makes use of a unique and valuable photographic data source from two whale shark aggregation sites in the Indian Ocean. Successional injury-healing progression cases were reviewed to investigate the characteristics of injuries and quantify a coarse healing timeframe. Wounds were measured over time using an image standardization method. This work shows that by Day 25 major injury surface area decreased by an average of 56% and the most rapid healing case showed a surface area reduction of 50% in 4 days. All wounds reached a point of 90% surface area closure by Day 35. There were differences in healing rate based on wound type, with lacerations and abrasions taking 50 and 22 days to reach 90% healing, respectively. This study provides baseline information for wound healing in whale sharks and the methods proposed could act as a foundation for future research. Use of a detailed classification system, as presented here, may also assist in ocean scale injury comparisons between research groups and aid reliable descriptive data. Such findings can contribute to discussions regarding appropriate management in aggregation areas with an aim to reduce the likelihood of injuries, such as those resulting from vessel collisions, in these regions or during movements between coastal waters.

中文翻译：

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鲸鲨（Rhincodon typus）的伤口愈合能力及其对保护管理的意义

伤口愈合对于海洋生物群（例如弹性支气管）非常重要，在它们的整个生命历史中，它们可能会引起一系列自然和人为的伤口。有证据表明，该组具有较高的外伤愈合能力。但是，由于商业和娱乐性海洋活动的增加，人为伤口可能会更加频繁。鲸鲨因使用地表水和野生动植物旅游而特别容易受伤。关于鲸鲨如何从伤害中恢复的了解有限，而且通常仅将机会见解局限于单一的机会主义观察。本研究利用了来自印度洋两个鲸鲨聚集地点的独特而有价值的摄影数据源。审查了连续性损伤愈合进展病例，以调查损伤的特征并量化粗略的愈合时间。使用图像标准化方法随时间测量伤口。这项工作表明，到第25天，重大损伤的表面积平均减少了56％，而愈合最快的病例在4天内表面积减少了50％。到第35天，所有伤口均达到90％的表面积闭合点。根据伤口类型，治愈率存在差异，裂伤和擦伤分别需要50天和22天才能达到90％的治愈率。这项研究提供了鲸鲨伤口愈合的基线信息，并且所提出的方法可以作为未来研究的基础。使用此处介绍的详细分类系统，也可能有助于研究组之间的海损比较，并提供可靠的描述性数据。这些发现有助于在集水区进行有关适当管理的讨论，以减少受伤的可能性，例如在这些区域或沿岸水域之间的航行中因船只相撞而造成的伤害。