Deaths on Tamil Nadu coast ; Pod of Whales washed ashore at Thoothukudi

On way to Indira Gandhi Air port in the National Capital to receive wife ,my driver started discussing fish business in Hindi heart land state of Bihar where fish production was many times higher this year due to sufficient water in village fish ponds courtesy rains and gushing water in rivers too.

I was in tearing hurry to reach air port to receive my wife and sister who were landing from different destinations at the same time. Discussions on fish veered around good omens like touching fish and Curd , eating sweets,  vermillion tilak on forehead.The Driver from Bihar quoting traditions said ,when you proceed for good work , “Dahi –Machali”  (Curd and Fish) chant  give positive results (No scientific explanation is available to such sayings but people follow such practices for hundreds of years as a blind faith).

I was sucked into thoughts as he , after parking car on road side, was blurting out directions on mobile  to his wife for partial drying of the pond to take out big fishes for sale in a  remote  village  back home.

On way back,I scrolled news headlines .I sifted through major news of the day-Jallikatu ,a sport for taming of Bulls in the villages of Tamil Nadu ,stayed by the apex court but as if it was the day of Fishes,a bad news emanated from the Tiruchendur coast in Southern Tamil Nadu where more than 80 whales had come on the shore and unfortunately 45 died despite all efforts put them back into  sea water.

Alarm bells were set and fishermen and authorities ,who were keeping a watch on 16 kms long stretch, were at loss to understand the phenomenon and giant fishes were dying in front of their eyes.

Of the 81 fishes washed ashore ,45 had died by afternoon and each fish was weighing around 1000-1500 kilograms and about four meters long. 15 others died yesterday ( Wednesday,Jan 13,2015).
These pods of short finned pilot whales beached ,leaving authorities baffled-some said it was due to seismic activity deep in the sea as many of them were spotted with injuries while many were of opinion that these mammals were disoriented while foraging near the shore when the sea water was getting cool and  salinity is down. The pod is a social group of whales .

The Alanthalai and Manappadu stretches of the Coast near Tuticorin district has rough sea bed  and fishes were stranded there. Experts feel that fishes might have come to the shore on high tide and in low tide,they were stuck. As they follow the lead fish which uses sonar navigation may have lost the main course .

 Fishes were coming to shore on Monday afternoon and by evening ,it was an alarming situation and fishermen were awake through out the night to put them back in sea. At  least 250 whales were pushed back to the sea.

Exact cause cannot be pin pointed by marine experts and deep studies  of the eco system is required  with the help of oceongraphic experts. The shot finned pilot whales are found in the pacific ocean . Coast guard, wild life department,fisheries department were involved in the rescue operation after mass stranding reports trickled in . Marine scientists feel that the school might have got stranded in search of food.

Scientists working with the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere reserve say that these fishes were deep water fishes and dive upto 1000 meters and live in the matrilineal kinship groups which generally eat squids. In search of squids, the school would have come to the shore .

Unfortunately , on the same stretch on January 14,1973,   147 whales were stranded and after surviving for a few days, they had died.

Now , various teams are at work to put a round the clock vigil on theses fishes coming to beaches and a detailed investigations are needed  to find out reason –it might be pollution, due to climatic changes or any other region. Many say temperature and salinity levels were normal and these factors can not be attributed  for the freak incident.

These mammals use call dialects to communicate within the group and some fish might have fallen sick and others would have followed and met the deadly fate.