RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Fishermen successfully freed a three meter long bottlenose dolphin which had entangled in their nets near Malan, Balochistan, on May 24, the WWF-Pakistan said on Friday.

According to fisherman, Hasnat Khan, a large sized dolphin, locally called tushuk, became caught in gillnet placed for tuna. The animal was struggling to escape from the net and crew members immediately stopped fishing operations. ‘After a struggle of half an hour, we cut the net and safely rescued dolphin,’ he added.

Although, dolphins are considered majestic animals and are one of the top predators in the oceanic ecosystem, they are extremely sensitive to entanglement in fishing nets. In such cases, they cannot surface to breath and thus drown and die. Hence, efforts to save and release such animals usually fail and animals do not survive.

WWF-Pakistan under its project Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) supported by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Common Oceans has trained more than 100 fishermen operating in Pakistani waters.

Technical Advisor (Marine Fisheries), WWF-Pakistan Muhammad Moazzam Khan said that every year a large number of dolphins become entangled in gillnet fisheries throughout the world. Since, these are considered sacred animals, fishermen therefore do not kill them; however, incidental mortality is very high. He further said that training provided to skippers aims to make all possible efforts to protect mega fauna for instance, whales, dolphins, whale sharks, sunfishes, mobulid rays and turtles. ‘Hundreds of these animals are safely release every year by these trained fishermen,’ he added.

Earlier, there were six records of the release of bottlenose dolphins by WWF-Pakistan trained fishermen. Although this number seems small it is a great success by fishermen.

Moazzam Khan further pointed out that in addition to this, WWF-Pakistan is also experimenting on modification of fishing nets and their operations aiming to reduce the mortality of protected, endangered and threatened species in Pakistani waters. So far, these experiments have shown promising results and a large number of rare animals have been successfully released while mortality is considerably reduced.

There are 22 species of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) found in Pakistan; of these bottlenose dolphins are the most common species. There are two species of bottlenose dolphins found in Pakistan i.e. Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiopsaduncus),which is found mostly near the coast and the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiopstruncatus), which is more oceanic in nature and massive in size, is found in offshore waters.

Senior Director Programmes, WWF-Pakistan, Rub Nawaz lauded efforts of the fishermen in releasing dolphin, saying that it is ‘very’ rare for a marine species to survives the entanglement. He further pointed that all cetaceans including whales and dolphins, were declared protected species under the fisheries legislations of the governments of Sindh and Balochistan on 18 May 2016 and 7 September 2016 respectively. They are also declared protected species under the Balochistan Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Act 2014. With the management and legislative regime in place, now effective measures for the protection of marine mammals can be undertaken in an effective way.

Rub Nawaz further added that a study on marine dolphins and whales was initiated by WWF-Pakistan in 1997 and involved other concerned research intuitions of the country. Since then considerable information has been generated about cetacean populations.

In consultation with all major stakeholders, WWF-Pakistan has prepared a Cetacean Conservation Strategy which was presented during a workshop in 2013. Enactment of the legislation for protection of cetaceans by fisheries and wildlife departments was one of the major recommendations of this strategy, which is now being implemented. He stressed the need for effective implementation on the legislation, which he hoped, will ensure protection of dolphins and whales in Pakistan.