KARACHI: A whale shark died after it became entangled in a net cast off the Hawkesbay beach and the 300-kilo fish was dragged on to the shore by local fishermen on Monday morning.
DrBabarHussainof WWF Pakistan confirmed that a 20-foot-long, 300-kilo whale shark had been found dead in the net cast by fishermen of Abdur Rehman goth.
“It was a young male of the species as the full length of an adult is about 39 feet. It’s not a whale, but a fish species. Fishermen found it dead on Monday morning in the net they had cast the previous night to catch Soya, another fish species,” he said, adding that the clumsy but charming fish became trapped in the net and died.
“The fish is not an efficient swimmer and uses its entire body to swim, which is very unusual. This explains why it dies upon getting entangled in the net,” Dr Hussain explained.
The largest specimen so far recorded in the world was caught on Nov 11, 1947 off the Baba Island near Karachi. It was 12.65 meters (41.50ft), weighed more than 21.5 tonnes and had a girth of seven meters,