WATCH: Humpback sighted off Karachi coast

Rare encounter reassures conservators of endangered specie’s growing population

KARACHI:

Fishermen busy fishing in deep waters off the Karachi shoreline spotted a humpback whale and recorded its video.

The video released by the World Wildlife Fund (Pakistan) shows the endangered whale diving into the water. The rare encounter reassured conservators of endangered specie’s growing population

Fishermen busy fishing in deep waters off the Karachi shoreline spotted a humpback whale and recorded its video, showing the endangered whale diving into the water. The rare encounter reassured conservators of endangered specie’s growing population#etribune pic.twitter.com/JH5eWsz7t7

— The Express Tribune (@etribune) February 20, 2022

Measuring around 15 metres and tipping scales at over 25,000 kilogrammes The humpback is rarest whale in the world. It is the only whale in the world that turns to the Arabian Sea for food and breeding.

According to WWF (Pakistan) Technical Adviser Moazzam Khan, more than 79 Humpback whales have been sighted off the shores of Sindh and Balochistan in the last five years. Apart from Pakistan, humpbacks are also found in India, Oman, Yemen and Sri Lanka.

Also read: Giant dead Bryde's whale found in Karachi deep sea

He said that according to an estimate, only 100 whales of this particular species sighted off Karachi coast are left in the world. Otherwise, as per Endangered Species Coalition, thanks to global conservation efforts, the current population has rebounded to nearly 80,000 Humpback whales up from a low-point of 10,000 to 15,000 around the world.

Humpback whales live in all oceans around the world. They travel great distances every year and have one of the longest migrations of any mammal on the planet. Some populations swim 5,000 miles from tropical breeding grounds to colder, more productive feeding grounds. Humpback whales feed on shrimp-like crustaceans (krill) and small fish, straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates, which act like a sieve.

Moazzam Khan said that besides Humpback, the Blue Whale has been sighted 17 times in Pakistani waters in the past five years while the Brooders Whale has been sighted 10 times in five years. Moreover, 97 whale sightings were reported from a great distance and with incomplete details. All types of whales have been seen 222 times in Pakistani waters since 2016. At least six types of whales pass through Pakistani waters during their annual north-south migration.