KARACHI: Two pods of Bryde’s whale were recently observed along Sindh’s coast, reported the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) on Thursday.

Listed in the data deficient category (not enough known about its status) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Bryde’s whale is the only baleen whale species that usually spend the whole year in tropical and subtropical zones.

Their occurrence is rare and its population in some locations including Pakistan is declining.

According to the WWF-P, Iqra Mohammad and Hasnat Khan, both fishermen trained by the organisation in collecting data on endangered marine species and their conservation, recently spotted a pod of five and three whales at two different locations respectively.

“The first sighting occurred about 15km off Hajamro creek near the mouth of the Indus whereas the other at 40 miles south of Khajar creek. The whales were found feeding on a school of fish and pelagic shrimps in one instance,” technical adviser on marine fisheries with WWF-P Mohammad Moazzam Khan said.

The footages, he pointed out, showed whales with slender bodies having a sickle-shaped dorsal fin, a distinctive feature of a Bryde’s whale.

A Bryde’s whale, scientifically known as Balaenoptera edeni, was among the three baleen whales found in Pakistan. “The other two baleen whales found in Pakistan are the blue whale and the Arabian humpback whale. There are a few records of the presence of Bryde’s whale in Pakistan which mainly constitute their beached carcasses,” he said.

A carcass of Bryde’s whale was found in Damb, Sonmiani in 2013, while two specimens were caught in tuna gillnets in Gwadar and then in the offshore waters of Ormara in 2010 and 2014 respectively. In the last case, the whale died while being disentangled from the net.

Senior director programmes at the WWF-P Rab Nawaz said that a regional programme to monitor whales in the Northern Arabian Sea, including Pakistan, Iran, Oman, Yemen and UAE had been planned with the aim to estimate the whale population in the area.

“Over the last three months, 24 sightings of the Arabian humpback whale have been reported by fishermen from the coastal and offshore waters of Pakistan, indicating that there is a reasonably large population of whales in our waters,” he said.

He emphasised the need for studying their distribution, abundance, biology and threats to their population.

Under the Balochistan (Wildlife Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Bill 2014, fishing cetaceans including whales and dolphins is prohibited.

Similarly under the rules notified in 2016 under the Balochistan Sea Fisheries Ordinance, 1970 and Sindh Fisheries Ordinance, 1981, catching of any whales and dolphins in the waters of Balochistan and Sindh is prohibited.

“Both governments need to effectively implement these legislations,” Mr Khan said.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2016