Whales
coming ashore in various parts of India frequently is not a good sign from the
environmental aspect.
Huge mammal’s coming to shores was never so frequent as it happened during last few months . In a shocking phenomenon,A pod of whales had washed ashore in Tamil Naidu last month ,and most of them died,then it happened in Mumbai,and after that latest is the case in Odisha
A 33-foot sperm whale washed ashore near Podampetta off the Ganjam coast in Odisha, about 150 kilometers from Bhubaneswar three days ago. No reason for the Odisha’s death is known yet ,but forest officials say she might have dead a couple of days ago and it might have died after being hit by fishing trawlers.
Sperm whale is the largest toothed whale in the world. It can stay submerged for about 90 minutes and can dive down to 2,250 meters.The site where the whale has washed up is also the rookery for Olive Ridley sea turtle.
A 12m (40ft) long Bryde's whale was washed up on Juhu beach in the western city of Mumbai a few days ago.it weighed around 20 tonnes. The Bryde's whale is an endangered species and is found in the Arabian sea.
Experts are looking into the freak incidents but whales die of many reasons like it swims against waves and during ebbing time when water recedes it gets disoriented and swims to dried shores ; underground seismic activity also throw whales in disorientation cycle ; less salinity or mixing of sweet water resources also cause disbalance;fish trawlers injure them; out of fear of sharks whales some time swim to shores without realizing consequences; noise pollution in sea because of too much activity of trawlers,ships also disturb huge fish, at times whales get choked due to plastic and polythene sheets in sea.
Huge mammal’s coming to shores was never so frequent as it happened during last few months . In a shocking phenomenon,A pod of whales had washed ashore in Tamil Naidu last month ,and most of them died,then it happened in Mumbai,and after that latest is the case in Odisha
A 33-foot sperm whale washed ashore near Podampetta off the Ganjam coast in Odisha, about 150 kilometers from Bhubaneswar three days ago. No reason for the Odisha’s death is known yet ,but forest officials say she might have dead a couple of days ago and it might have died after being hit by fishing trawlers.
Sperm whale is the largest toothed whale in the world. It can stay submerged for about 90 minutes and can dive down to 2,250 meters.The site where the whale has washed up is also the rookery for Olive Ridley sea turtle.
A 12m (40ft) long Bryde's whale was washed up on Juhu beach in the western city of Mumbai a few days ago.it weighed around 20 tonnes. The Bryde's whale is an endangered species and is found in the Arabian sea.
Experts are looking into the freak incidents but whales die of many reasons like it swims against waves and during ebbing time when water recedes it gets disoriented and swims to dried shores ; underground seismic activity also throw whales in disorientation cycle ; less salinity or mixing of sweet water resources also cause disbalance;fish trawlers injure them; out of fear of sharks whales some time swim to shores without realizing consequences; noise pollution in sea because of too much activity of trawlers,ships also disturb huge fish, at times whales get choked due to plastic and polythene sheets in sea.
Experts
are now looking into such incidents ,but
speedy action is required to save whales. Some species move in groups
and follow pilot whale in most of the cases.
Last
month, band news came 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 on Jan 13,2015).These
pods of short finned pilot whales breached ,left wild life authorities fully
baffled.The pod is 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 one 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.
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