KARACHI, Jan 29: The Sindh Wildlife Department has buried the carcass of the whale that had washed ashore a couple of weeks back at Hawkesbay, a suburban beach resort.

Dr Fehmida Firdous of the SWD said on Saturday that after a couple of months, when the approximately 35-feet Bryde’s whale, weighing around five tons, would reduce to a skeleton, would be dug out.

The skeleton would be put on display in a museum either at the Khar Wildlife Research Centre in Khirthar National Park or the SWD’s head office in the city where it could be used for educational and research purposes.

The carcass had started decaying while lying on the beach with very deep cuts at the posterior end near the broken caudal fin and tail end. It had more or less 65 baleen plates that were black in colour. There was a small distinct dorsal fin, about four feet 10 inch-long, without any blotches.

The Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera Edini), belonging to the Balaenopteridae family, has usually a length of around 13 metres (Roberts, 1997), whereas its maximum length has been recorded at 15.5 metres or 50 feet (Cummings, 1985 & Roberts 1997). It is one of the smaller sized baleen whales with upper parts of the body being dark bluish black, as was seen in the one that washed ashore at Hawkesbay.

The first recorded evidence of appearance of this species in the country was Dr Pilleri’s discovery of a part of the skull and the one in Sonmiani, Lasbela (Balochistan) in 1971 (Pilleri and Gihr 1972).

The stranding of this species has been observed seven times during 10 years by T. J. Roberts (Roberts 1977). There are ever-increasing evidences that this species regularly appear in monsoon and post-monsoon season off Pakistani coast.

Responding to Dawn’s queries, Deputy Director-General of the World Wide Fund for Nature Dr Ejaz Ahmad said that his organization was doing research under a project undertaken jointly with the universities of Karachi and UK, and had also approached the SWD in this regard. He said that the WWF had also told the wildlife conservator Ghulam Rasool Channa that if the government did not require the whale’s skeleton, it might give the same to the organization. The WWF was awaiting a final decision from the SWD, he added.

Dr Ejaz recalled that a couple of months back also, a dead whale had washed ashore and its body had been given to the WWF and the Karachi University.

According to sources, the whale’s bones were collected, treated with chemicals and preservatives, and brought to the SWD museum where the skeleton was supposed to be reassembled and put on display. However, the government has not yet approved the required funds, about Rs200,000, and, as such, the whale’s bones are lying piled up in the SWD’s store till date.