KARACHI: An endangered guitarfish species that got entangled in a gillnet was successfully rescued in the offshore waters of Balochistan recently, officials of the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) said on Wednesday.

The bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma), also called the shark ray or mud skate was of adult size, about 2.3 metres long.

“It was caught off Ras Zarrien near Pasni about 45km in the offshore waters where the depth of the sea is about 30 metres,” said technical adviser to WWF-P on marine fisheries Mohammad Moazzam Khan.

It’s a rare case in the world to release a guitarfish as the species popular for its meat and fins could have fetched fishermen a good sale amount, he added.

Giving more details of its accidental capture, he said that Karachi-based fisherman Mohammad Iqrar was operating his tuna gillnetter along with his colleagues when he noticed a large guitarfish entangled in the net.

“They stopped their fishing operation and tried to help the fish get out of the net but failed because of its thorny skin. Then, they decided to haul the net and, after a struggle of almost half an hour, they managed to bring the fish on the deck and released it back into the water,” he explained.

The large fish that fishermen claimed to have caught after a gap of three years was slightly injured during the process, he pointed out.

Quoting boat skipper Iqrar, Mr Khan said that the fish had good market value and he could have earned Rs2,000 easily. But since he understood the species’ significance, he decided to release it safely back into the water.

The organisation has trained 50 fishermen since 2013 on the release of rare and endangered species and so far 14 whale sharks, four mobulid rays, two sunfishes, one Longman’s beaked whale, two bottlenose dolphins and thousands of marine turtles have been released by fishermen.

“The release of bowmouth guitarfish is a good omen for our fisheries as these species are often caught for its meat, extraction of liver oil and valuable fins. The species, though getting rare, is not legally protected in the country,” said senior director biodiversity WWF-P Rab Nawaz.

The organisation, he said, was working in close collaboration with the fisheries and wildlife departments of Sindh and Balochistan to declare guitarfish as a protected species. The government should devise a policy to reduce gillnet fisheries as this fishing method was known to cause high by-catch especially of cetaceans and turtles, he said.

Locally known as “Bhuth-khair” in Sindhi and “Koh-bayyadri” in Balochi, bowmouth guitarfish was once in abundance and used to be regularly exploited in Pakistani waters but now its population has reduced drastically mainly due to overfishing and its slow reproduction rate.

It’s usually found near the sea floor and prefers sandy or muddy areas near underwater structures. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the bowmouth guitarfish as vulnerable because it is widely caught by artisanal and commercial fisheries for its valuable fins and meat.

It can attain a maximum length of three meters and feed on bottom dwelling fishes and crustaceans. Its bands of flattened teeth allow it to crush hard-shelled prey.

The species is known from the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to Japan, south to New South Wales and Australia. It adapts well to captivity and is displayed in public aquariums.

Published in Dawn October 29th, 2015

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