KARACHI: Two sperm whales, a species that had no past record of its live sighting in Pakistan’s waters, were recently spotted by fishermen off Jiwani, the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) reported on Tuesday.

According to the organisation, Captain Mehar Gul spotted two spouts of whales on Sept 10 while navigating about 22km south of Gunz, near Jiwani, part of Balochistan’s Gwadar district.

“Fishermen became very curious and followed these whales for over an hour during which they were able to record their movement with the help of their mobile phone cameras,” Mohammad Moazzam Khan, technical adviser on marine resources with the WWF-P, said, adding that the species was later identified as sperm whale and it’s their first live record in Pakistan’s water.

According to him, a skeleton of a sperm whale had earlier been reported from Sonara Beach near Karachi in 2005, whereas a few bones of another specimen were collected from Daran Beach near Jiwani.

Sperm whales, he pointed out, were the largest toothed whales and the largest toothed predators on the planet. “The species also possess the largest brain of any creature known to have lived on the earth and feeds on a variety of fishes and invertebrates. However, 80 per cent of its diet consists of large squids which are found in plenty in our waters,” he said.

To a question as to how it was identified, he said the sperm whale could easily be recognised by its massive head and prominent rounded forehead.

“Besides, sperm whale’s blow hole is at an angle on the left side of its head. This causes its blow to shoot to the left,” he explained, adding that the dive pattern and terminal blow showed that the two whales were adults as their size exceeded 10 metres.

The organisation, he said, had so far trained 100 fishermen to collect information on fish catch, by-catch, especially of megafauna and safe release of endangered species, which got entangled in fishing nets.

Dr Babar Khan, the regional head of the Sindh and Balochistan WWF-P, stated that a total of 23 species of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) were known to occur in Pakistani waters.

“This sighting of sperm whales indicates the rich diversity of Pakistan’s marine life. There is a need to implement the 2013 Cetacean Conservation Strategy which aimed at protecting cetaceans in our waters,” he said.

Last year, during post-monsoon months, from August to December 2016, fishermen reported 47 sightings of baleen whales, including 12 confirmed sighting of Arabian humpback whales and three sightings of Bryde’s whales.

There have been nine sightings of whales in Pakistan from Aug 9 to Sept 12 this year. Their details would be shared later, the organisation said.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2017