KARACHI: In a rare case, fishermen safely released a common bottlenose dolphin, which was found entangled in tuna gillnet in offshore waters about 100 kilometers (km) south of Kund Malir along Balochistan coast.
Dolphins and whales are known to drown quickly once they get entangled in gillnets. Dolphins are known to come to surface about 3 times per minute to breathe in air under normal circumstances, however, if more active they may surface 10 to 12 times per minute. In case of entanglement in fishing nets, the dolphins cannot come to surface to inhale air, which usually results in their death.
Wildlife Fund (WWF-Pakistan) has initiated a study on assessment of mortality of cetacean (dolphins and whales) in the gillnet fisheries. In all cases dolphins were observed to die by time the net is heaved from the sea.
on April 1, 2015, a tuna gillnet boat Al Raza Hussain operating about 96 km south of Kund Malir, Balochistan observed a 7 feet long common bottlenose dolphin, which was still alive.
Luckily fishermen of this tuna gillnetter were trained by WWF-Pakistan and knew the procedure to release such animals.
Without wasting anytime the fishermen released bottlenose dolphin, which swam away immediately.
According to Muhammad Moazzam Khan, Technical adviser (Marine Fisheries) of WWF-Pakistan, common bottlenose dolphins ((Tursiops truncatus) are found in offshore shelf waters along the coast of Pakistan.
This is a rare case, but hopefully not the last in which one such dolphin was successfully disentangled from the fishing net and released alive by fishermen.
