KARACHI, Sept 20: The battered body of a whale with some of its parts missing washed up on the Seaview beach on Tuesday morning.
Dozens of people went to the beach just to catch a glimpse of the giant mammal, at least 69 feet long, believed to be a blue whale or humpback whale.
Experts agreed that it was a baleen whale species, which is characterised by baleen plates used to filter food from water, but had different opinions about the exact family of the whale.
There was also consensus among them that immediate arrangements should be made for the burial of the putrefying body and for preservation of parts of its skeleton.
Such efforts were under way till late night.
“The size of the marine mammal might be bigger as the body is not intact,” said Dr Babar Hussain of the World Wildlife Fund-Pakistan while speaking to Dawn.
“Its upper jaw and a portion of lower jaw are missing, while a detached part of lower jaw measuring 17.8 feet has been found lying near the body.”
Its large size caused his team of experts to assume that it was a blue whale, he said.
“The body is in poor shape. Perhaps the whale died two to three weeks ago,” he said, citing natural causes behind the death.
Seconding his findings, Prof Dr Pirzada Jamal Siddiqui, heading a team of experts from Karachi University’s Centre of Excellence in Marine Biology, said that the whale had certain identification marks, including its flippers and size, which were specific to the blue whale.
“The 73- to 74-foot body makes it the largest specimen of blue whale ever recorded in Pakistani waters. Its size could be bigger as its flukes were not intact,” he said, adding that the team was not able to identify the gender of the species.
“It must have died more than a month ago in deep waters. But it is too early to say anything about the whale’s cause of death.
We have taken samples for a DNA analysis,” he said.
The sailing ships, he added, posed a major threat to the survival of cetacean species as they come out of the water to breathe.
Sharing his observation, Mansoor Ali Shah representing the Sindh Wildlife Department team said that he believed that it was a humpback whale. “The black strip on the dorsal side of the whale makes it appear more like a humpback whale.”
He said discussions were under way to decide about the mammal’s burial.
Near-shore and off-shore water surveys have showed that bottlenose dolphin, humpback dolphin, spinner dolphin, Risso’s dolphin and killer whale (which is scientifically categorised as a dolphin) have been found in moderate numbers in Pakistani waters, as does the finless porpoise. Besides, a number of whales, including Bryde’s whale, Cuvier’s beaked whale, fin whale, sperm whale, humpback whale and blue whale, have also been sighted in the seas.
According to the information available on the internet, baleen whales are generally larger than toothed whales, and females are bigger than males. The blue whale of the same group represents the largest known animal species.
The longest blue whale ever recorded was a 108-foot adult female caught during whaling in Antarctica. The blue whale is thought to feed almost exclusively on small, shrimp-like creatures called euphausiids or krill.
Blue whales can weigh over 100 tonnes. They migrate to tropical-to-temperate waters during winter months to mate and give birth to calves. They can feed throughout their range, in polar, temperate, or even tropical waters.
“They have a slow reproduction cycle. And, though we don’t know about their exact number, it is assumed that few marine creatures of this enormous size are left in the world.
“Hence I believe that we must carry out research, explore the factors that pose a threat to their existence and make a serious effort to conserve these beautiful marine creatures playing an important role in the marine ecosystem,” said Dr Siddiqui.
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