NEW DELHI, OCT 29: When schools of whale sharks visit the Gujarat coast, this year, between November and April, at least a thousand will not return to the deep seas, but land up on dinner plates in South-East Asian countries.The fishermen of Gujarat slaughter between 800 to 1000 whale-sharks or rhineocodon typus every year in the most inhumane manner and export meat and fins to Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong where it is a sought-after delicacy, said Fahmeeda Hanfee, a senior researcher with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature-India (WWF-I).Hanfee, who has been studying whale shark for the past three years with a grant from the Rufford Foundation, will be submitting the final report in November recommending the government for imposing a complete ban on killing and trade of the largest mamal in the world. The species is not protected under the Wildlilfe Protection Act of 1972 nor by any other world body, added Hanfee.Come every November, whale-sharks follow thousands of sardines, mackerels, skipjacks, bonitos and yellow fin tunas to the warmer coast of Gujarat.The fishermen in Veraval and Okha ports, who have mastered the technique, harpoon the whale-sharks, particularly the young ones between four to twelve metres weighing two to eight tonnes (maximum length of a full-grown whale is 18.3 M Or 60 feet), and haul them for eight to ten hours. When the animal is exhausted, they tow it alongside the boat to the shore and cut into pieces some times even while it is alive in knee-deep water.The middlemen buy the meat at Rs 2-5 per kg and sell it in the international market between $one to $15. A set of four dried fins, used to make soup in big hotels, fetches around Rs 22,000 ($500). The liver, a rich source of vitamin, is bought by the pharmaceutical firms. Oil is made from the fat to paint the boats and for other purposes.But the poor fishermen earn a pittance of about Rs 6,500 per catch out of which Rs 1,500 goes on operational cost whereas the exporter earns more than Rs 100,000. India export more than 300 tonnes of meat apart from dried fins every year.In Taiwan, the meat, popularly known as tofu meat is a delicacy because of its soft and white flesh. Day by day the demand is increasing all over South-East Asia.Maldives in 1993 and the Phillipines in 1999 have imposed ban onkilling of whale-sharks.India could ban the killing and develop whale-shark tourism like that of in Australia, the Phillipines, Maldives and Seychelles, employing the same fishermen as guides for a lucrative trade, Hanfee said.Research reveals that whale-shark, by no means, a terrifying predator as is commonly perceived. Man is the biggest predator of this docile creature. An ecological balance in the sea depends on the very survival of the whale shark, opined Hanfee.
