Giant dead Bryde's whale found in Karachi deep sea

WWF-P official says the cetacean was found floating five nautical miles off Charna Island

KARACHI:

The carcass of a giant whale was found about five nautical miles off Charna Island on Tuesday, suggesting it may have died after being hit by a ship or trapped in a fishing net, an official said.

The discovery was made when amateur fishermen were found photographing the cetacean floating on the surface.

Technical Adviser of World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) Moazzam Khan said it was feared that the whale was killed last week due to flooding in the sea after strong winds.

Locals were alerted to report to the WWF in case of the carcass washing ashore so that samples could be obtained. It had begun to rot in the ocean and the swollen part is actually its tongue.

Also read: Dead whale washes ashore on Ormara beach

It is one of the three largest whales found in Pakistan. In November last year, a dead whale of the same breed was spotted alive in Ormara.

The whale is one of three baleen whales found in Pakistani waters. The other two are the Blue whale and the Arabian Humpback whale.

Local fishermen started to cut open the stomach of the whale after it washed ashore, in attempts to retrieve a highly valued material called Ambergris, a waxy solid substance found in the intestines of the creature.

In 2019, another 13-foot-long whale of the same breed was found dead at a remote rocky shore near Gunz, along the Balochistan coast. The whale had become entangled in a gillnet deployed by local fishermen to catch Indian mackerel near Gunz.