Endangered species: Wildlife dept reports second dolphin death of the year

Earlier this year the body of a dolphin was found stuck in the gates of the Sukkur barrage

SUKKUR: The wildlife department in Sukkur is busy trying to figure out who is using nets to capture the endangered blind Indus dolphin after the body of the mammal was found floating in the Dadu Canal, an off-shoot of the Sukkur Barrage.

According to sources, on Tuesday some residents of the area spotted a dead dolphin in the Dadu canal and informed the wildlife department about it. The official fished out the body and took it to the Dolphin Centre near Lab-e-Mehran, where it was buried after a postmortem.



The deputy conservator of the wildlife department in Sukkur, Taj Muhamamd Shaikh, told The Express Tribune that the dolphin was a male, measuring more than six-feet and weighed more than 40 kilogrammes. He said that the dolphin was killed after getting entangled in a fishing net. He added that the culprits had not been identified and no case had been registered till the filing of this report.

According to Shaikh, this is the second dolphin to have died this year. The first dolphin was found stuck in the gates of the Sukkur Barrage and died of natural causes.

The senior project officer of the World Wildlife Fund in Sukkur, Imran Malik, said that no fishing net was found in the canal which suggested that that the dolphin was probably entangled in a fishing net somewhere upstream in the River Indus. He added that the fishermen probably released the body in the river, which is how it made its way into the canal.

While talking about the body of a dolphin found in the barrage's gates earlier this year, Malik said that when they found the body it had already been there for 15 days and had completely decomposed which is why they could not determine the cause of death.

He claimed that the fishing season was at its peak and so the departments concerned should identify illegal nets and take action against fishermen using them.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2014.