Two whale sharks found, set free

First one caught near Ormara in Balochistan, second found off Charna Island

KARACHI:

Two endangered whale sharks, commonly known as the world's largest fish, were found in separate locations of the Pakistan's coastline on Wednesday and were released safely back into the waters.

Both the Pakhtun fishermen who made the unique discovery belonged to Karachi. The first one, Gul Hussain, was fishing near Ormara, Balochistan, nearly 45 kilometres off the coast when he caught the whale shark in his gillnet. The sea was nearly 1,030 metres deep when the 18-foot-long shark was caught and he suspended the fishing operation immediately, Hussain told the officials of the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan).

After a struggle of almost 25 minutes, the fisherman released the gentle giant successfully back into the waters. This was the third time that the proud Hussain has released a whale shark back into the sea and, as always, he lost 275 metres of his fishing net in the process.

The second incident took place over 200 km from Karachi, around 155 km off Charna Island where the depth of sea water was 155 metres. Fisherman Hasnat Khan caught the 16-foot-long whale shark in his net and managed to release it within 20 minutes. Even though he lost his net, Khan was happy to release the fish back into the sea.

According to marine experts, it is not easy to cut the net and release whale sharks successfully. The WWF-Pakistan has trained 50 fishermen to carry out this task since 2013. As a result, 14 whale sharks, two mobulid rays, two sunfishes, one Longman's beaked whale, two bottlenose dolphins and thousands of marine turtles have been released.

The release of the two whale sharks is considered to be a good omen for fisheries in Pakistan as these gentle giants were previously killed to extract their liver oil. "Gillnet fisheries of Pakistan is known for the high mortality of protected, endangered and threatened species, such as whale sharks, turtles and dolphins," pointed out Muhammad Moazzam Khan, a technical adviser in marine fisheries with WWF-Pakistan.

Historically, there used to be an important whale shark fishery in Pakistan, said Moazzam, adding that the 1970s practice of fishing whale sharks using harpoons has been stopped. "Whale sharks are neither consumed in Pakistan nor their meat exported, he clarified. However, fishermen used to extract oil from its liver to smear the hull of fishing boats to keep it water-tight, he added. "The meat is used for poultry feed."

Moazzam pointed out that whale sharks usually damage the net when they get entangled, and that causes significant losses to the fishermen. Therefore, the fishermen used to kill these gentle giants in order to save their nets, he added.

Appreciating the efforts of the two fishermen, WWF-Pakistan senior biodiversity director Rab Nawaz said that the fishing community considers whale sharks an important marine animal even though this species of fish is not legally protected in Pakistan. WWF-Pakistan is working in close collaboration with the fisheries and wildlife departments of Sindh and Balochistan to include whale sharks as a protected species, he added.

Nawaz urged the government to devise a policy to reduce gillnets as they are known for high entanglement of by-catch, especially cetaceans and turtles. "Many countries, including Sri Lanka, have converted a large number of their gillnet boats to long-lining, which are considered comparatively much safer for threatened species," he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2015.