The whale shark which washed ashore near Tuticorin on Thursday is taken away for autopsy. It weighed nearly 1 ... Read More

MADURAI: An 18.8-foot-long whale shark (Rhincodon typus) that was rescued by the forest department personnel in the Tuticorin Range of Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park on Wednesday night was found dead close to the same place on Thursday morning. An autopsy revealed that the juvenile female whale shark had suffered an injury behind the head and could have been hit by the propeller of a deep sea fishing boat.

Forest range officer of Tuticorin Range R Raghuvaran told TOI that they were not aware of the injury when the whale shark weighing about one tonne was spotted close to the shore at Inigo Nagar near Tuticorin city around 7.30 pm on Wednesday. “It was struggling in shallow waters and could not get back to the deep sea. With the help of fishermen, we took it around 10 nautical miles off the coast and released it around 8.30 pm,” he said.

Around 5.30 am on Thursday the department personnel received information that the whale shark that is protected under Schedule I of The Wildlife Protection Act 1972 was washed ashore dead. Preliminary inquiry revealed that the whale shark could have been seven to ten years old and is lesser in number in the marine national park. They are primarily confined to the deep sea and rarely come to the surface.

“They are slow swimmers with a maximum speed of 10 nautical miles an hour,” he said and added that the big fish is not hunted as it does not have commercial value and is also banned.

A team of veterinarians from the animal husbandry department performed the autopsy. The experts found that it suffered a slow death with the internal organs failing one after the other due to the injury.

After post-mortem, the carcass was buried in a six feet deep pit. Acid and limestone powder was sprinkled on the carcass to destroy it in accordance with the norms. It may be recalled that on March 4 a nearly 15-feet-long whale shark washed ashore live near Dhanushkodi in neighbouring Ramanathapuram district and was stuck in the sandy waters. It swam back to the sea with the high tide.

