Fishermen in Gaddani were left shocked and awed after a massive whale was sighted just of the coast on Tuesday.

According to locals, this is the first such instance of the massive fish being sighted in Balochistan’s waters alive. The fish has been declared endangered by international agencies.

However, multiple dead whales have washed up on Balochistan’s beaches from time to time.

Local fishermen estimated that the whale could have been up to 100 feet in length and 50 feet in width.

The whale’s weight could be as much as 150 tons.

The whale’s sighting has left a glimmer of hope in the fishermen’s community, as it signals a healthy ecosystem in Balochistan’s waters.

Whales were once hunted for meat and oil, leading to them being nearly wiped out especially from the Indian ocean.

However, researchers found in 2021 that whales were returning to the Indian ocean and could possibly be breeding.

Video footage had captured the massive mammals in waters just off the Sychelles, leading to hope that the whales could populate the ocean again.

Sychelles is almost directly south of Karachi and Gaddani, at a distance of just over 3,000 kilometres.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF-Pakistan) lauded the efforts of local fishermen who recorded the live blue whale and shared its video with the organization and media outlets.

According to local fishers, the same whale was seen along the Gaddani coast at around 4:40 pm. on Sunday, but could not be recorded on camera. This is the second record of a live sighting of a blue whale in Pakistani waters, a news release said.

Commenting on this sighting, Muhammad Moazzam Khan, a technical advisor, at WWF-Pakistan, said that the blue whale is the second most common whale, after the Arabian Sea humpback whale, found in Pakistani waters.

There is a sizable population of blue whales in the Arabian Sea as local fishermen have been reporting several sightings of the animal for the last 15 years. In September 2017, a gigantic mother blue whale with her calf was sighted off the Churna Island near Karachi coast.

He said that WWF-Pakistan through its Observer Programme is building the capacity of local fishers to safely release the entangled whales, dolphins, turtles and other threatened marine species from fishing nets, film the sighting of endangered species and make efforts for the protection.

Khan added that the area from where blue whale is recorded is a part of the Churna-Kaio Island Complex Area of Interest and is adjacent to the North East Arabian Sea Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA) declared by the Marine Mammal Protected Area Task Force.

He further pointed out that the Gaddani area has many physical barriers such as shipbreaking activities, Single Point Mooring, other reception facilities of the Coal Power plant, and the presence of some construction-related barges and tugs. He hoped that the blue whale would maneuver and find its way into the deep Arabian Sea.

Ghazi Sallahuddin, the regional head, Sindh, and Balochistan, WWF-Pakistan, was of the view that whales face several challenges along their habitat range. The major threats to whales in Pakistani waters include entanglement in the fishing nets, ship strikes, water pollution, and climate change.

“We need to promote new conservation approaches through enhancing cooperation from local to regional and international levels,” he said and added that science-based and research organisations, civil society, states, and inter-governmental bodies should play their role to safeguard these whale species.

(With input from APP)