27-foot-long dead whale washes up on Pakistan shore

A 27-foot-long whale washed up dead in a remote area of Raini Hor between Pasni and Shumal Bundar in Balochistan, an official said on Saturday.

"A whale was found dead on the beach of Sarabandan in Pasni district, said Abdul Raheem Baloch, deputy director of the environment department. 

He said marks of fishing nets were found on the whale's body, adding that the endangered species apparently died of being strangled in the fishing gear. 

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in a statement, said the presence of Bryde’s whale, which is scientifically known as Balaenoptera brydei, has been reported across Pakistan on many occasions.

There were four strandings of this species along the Pakistan coast in 2022.

“It seems that this about 27-feet long whale got entangled in the fishing gear which can be seen wrapped around the whale,” WWF Technical Advisor Muhammad Moazzam Khan said.

There were also recent records about strandings of Bryde’s whale in Iran.

The WWF official expressed concern that the endangered species is under serious threat in the Arabian Sea, a large number of strandings of this species were recorded recently from the Arabian Sea.

International Whaling Commission in its meeting this year also recorded its concern about the frequent stranding of this whale in the Arabian Sea and stress for starting studies on behaviour of this whale in the Arabian Sea.

In 2019, a 31-foot-long Bryde's whale was found dead at a remote rocky shore near Gunz, along the Balochistan coast.

According to fishermen, the live specimen was found entangled in a fishing net, offshore Daran in November 2019.

They tried to disentangle the animal but could not succeed as it was very gigantic and aggressive, therefore they abandoned the rescue operation.