Protecting wildlife

Pakistan’s lack of consideration for the welfare of wildlife, including endangered species, was spotlighted this week by the discovery that a whale measuring some 34 feet had been quietly buried by municipal workers on Tuesday afternoon after having washed ashore on the Gwadar coast. Though Pakistan is a signatory to international conventions which seek the protection of endangered species, it has done little to stand by its pledges or to protect native wildlife. The first survey on the presence of marine cetaceans in Pakistan’s waters was made public in 2008. It is understood these include Bryde whales, Cuvier’s beaked whale, the fin whale, the sperm whale and the humpbacked whale.

There is uncertainty over the species of whale that was buried after fishermen who explored its stomach for ambergris. This mutilated the already decomposing body. While the WWF says the marine creature was the calf of a blue whale, experts in the Gwadar area maintain it was an adult Bryde whale. Specimens from the whale have been sent for DNA analysis after a WWF team visited the site. A giant blue whale had been spotted off the Balochistan coast last year with its baby, in the first live sighting of a blue whale in the area. A dead specimen of the same species was found in coastal waters off the coast of Karachi in 2014.

It is also not clear how the whale died. The WWF believes that it became entangled in fishing nets. The accounts that had come in initially, stating it had been struck by a moving ship, have been denied. What we do know is that the enormous creature was buried with remarkable efficiency and before proper verification and examination could be carried out by experts. All cetacean species are protected under Sindh and Balochistan laws, while the blue whale is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, with the global population only between 10,000 to 25,000 living mammals. As a sea mammal, the whale plays an enormously important role in the ocean’s ecological system. Following the incident at Gwadar, we perhaps need to examine whether a safe sea corridor needs to be put in place for oceanic species, especially as they migrate across stretches of water. Pakistan currently lacks such a corridor. In addition, we need to raise awareness about wildlife, its importance beyond material benefit and extend this to also protecting both land and sea animals found in the country.