Wildlife & Biodiversity

Whale shark caught in fishing net in Odisha dies

It is the first case in recent times of a beached or trapped whale shark dying before it could be released

 
By Ashis Senapati
Published: Friday 13 August 2021

A female whale shark, eight metres long, died after getting trapped in a fishing net 12 kilometres off Odisha’s Paradip coast August 12, 2021.

It had sustained serious external and internal injuries while trying to free itself from the trawl net. 

The fishers who had cast the net for their daily catch took an hour to pull the heavy marine species out of the sea water with the help of another trawler. 

They tried to cut the fishing nets to free the animal but failed. One of them said: 

The whale shark was alive when we were pulling it out but appeared lifeless after a few minutes. We lowered it into the seawater with the help of another trawler.

Officials of the fisheries department and other organisations should educate fishermen to ensure it does not happen again in the future, said Sajan John, a noted wildlife researcher.

The news is shocking, said Manas Ranjan Sahoo, additional director of fisheries (marine), fisheries department. 

The department has been creating awareness among fishers not to kill any protected marine species like sharks, turtles, dolphins, he added. “We will also train them to save the whale sharks from the fishing nets.”

The whale shark is an endangered species listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The animal is a filter feeder and eats on planktons and small fish. 

They are mostly found in the Gulf of Mannar and Gujarat coast. In Gujarat, the fishers have rescued around 800 whale sharks from fishing nets in the last 17 years.  

Accidental entanglement in fishing nets is a major threat to this animal. This is, however, the first instance in recent times that the animal died from the accident

Many whale sharks have been beached or their carcasses have washed ashore on the Odisha coast in the past. But they are usually released into the sea by local fishers. 

In a recent instance, a 15-feet-long whale shark stranded in Ganjam district was released in the sea on February 25, 2021. Fishers freed another whale shark from trawl nets off the coast in Balasore March 5, 2021. 

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