The carcass of a whale shark, weighing around a tonne, was found beached on the sea shore near Vakalapudi here in the early hours of Thursday. With this, the number of whale sharks that have been found dead here since 2013 touched 71.
Ironically, neither the Forest Department nor the Fisheries Department knew that whale sharks were protected on par with tigers in India, and killing and illegal trading of these species attracted seven years rigorous imprisonment with heavy fine, according to the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Whale shark, or ‘Bogga Sora’ in local parlance, became predominant in the Kakinada coast after 2007. Fishermen, however, consider its catch as a loss, as they have to cut the fishing net once shark is caught.
“Whale sharks travel from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean and reach the east coast in search of feed. Thanks to climate change, these species might have been finding good food here and coming over to the Kakinada coast in large numbers,” says K. Tulasi Rao, project coordinator of the East Godavari River Estuarine Ecosystem (EGREE) Foundation. The foundation launched a study on whale sharks in 2013 and found that 71 of them had been killed so far after getting caught in fishing nets.
“We are on the job of searching if there is any breeding ground for whale sharks here. Most carcasses we found here are of baby sharks weighing between one to two tonnes,” says P. Sathiya Selvam, conservation biologist at the foundation.
Till recently, fishermen used to cut carcasses into pieces and sell the meat in retail whenever they spotted a shark in their net. As the foundation launched a campaign on whale sharks and explained to fishermen the provisions of the Act, the latter stopped selling the meat.
“In Gujarat, the government pays a compensation of Rs. 25,000 per shark to fishermen to buy new nets. It is encouraging to find fishermen leaving their nets in the sea and allowing sharks to live,” says Dr. Tulasi Rao. The foundation is of the view that fishermen here also should adopt similar practice to protect the species, as coast is next only to Gujarat when it comes to population of the rare species.
Whale sharks travel from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean and reach the east coast in search
of feed.
K. Tulasi Rao
project coordinator of
EGREE Foundation
