Officials say whale shark was already dead

Officials on Thursday revealed the recently caught whale shark was already dead when the local fishermen snared it two days ago, discrediting the boat captain's claims that they had killed it before dragging towards Karachi Fish Harbour. "The primary examination of the shark suggests that it had perished before it was found by the local fishermen," said a senior official of the fisheries department. He said the boat's captain claim was against the facts.
The boat captain had claimed that his crew had killed the giant fish before dragging it for nearly 40 nautical miles within the country's sea waters from Sir Creek area to Karachi fish harbour. Similarly, Karachi Fish Harbour Authority (KFHA) has also rejected the boat captain's assertions, saying Maritime Security Agency (MSA) had issued an advisory to the deep-sea going fishermen about the dead afloat shark to avoid voyages through that area for safety.
"The MSA had pinpointed that a whale shark was floating dead some 65 nautical miles off Karachi shore on January 27, asking the deep-sea voyaging boats to sail through safe routes," the harbour's officials said. The KFHA had already purchased the dead shark at Rs 200,000 from the captain for taking the mammoth fish in its custody for scientific research.
Some four science research institutions of the country including Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Centre for Excellence Marine Biology of Karachi University (CEMB) and Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) have been invited for carrying out scientific studies on the dead fish.
However, officials said, only MFD and CEMB had so far visited the harbour to take samples of the shark for laboratory examinations to ascertain the fact behind killing of the globally endangered fish specie. They said the dead fish had already been shifted to a vacant building of an old marine museum from the harbour to facilitate the researchers to carry out research. They said the authority had also banned the public to see the shark since it was in its possession.
Whale Shark has been declared globally endangered marine specie, which stands on the red-list of International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Similarly, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has placed whale shark on its list-2 of most vulnerable species in the world. Pakistan is one of the signatory countries of the CITES.