TN clueless on stranded whale rescue
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Tamil Nadu has huge marine resources along its 1,050 km coastline, including the second-longest beach in Marina, a Central National Maritime University (Uthandi) and is home to a marine national park (Gulf of Mannar).
However, on Saturday morning, when a 25-foot-long whale got stranded in Mannavaram backwaters of the Nagapattinam coast, the state forest department was clueless about what to do.
Far from rescuing the animal, most of the field workers in the forest department were clueless about what kind of whale it was.
“It is blue in colour, so it should have been a blue whale….no, it is a tropical whale I guess,” were the expert comments among state wildlife personnel in Nagapattinam even as the whale was battling for life.
Till now the identity of the whale is a mystery. The forest department claimed, while addressing the local media, that the mammal is a blue whale.
However, independent marine conservationists said the stranded whale was a tropical whale (byrde whale) that is often confused with a Sei whale.
There is no proper system to rescue one of the worlds’ largest mammals that was stranded along the Nagapattinam coast.
Local villagers and fishermen with cushion beds pushed the whale back into the sea the next day, even before the arrival of forest department staff.
“There is a need for awareness on marine resources. At least in a few of the 13 coastal divisions we can have stranding teams and a kit along with a trawler to rescue such marine animals,” said marine conservationist Supraja Dharini, chairperson of Tree Foundation.
The whale that stranded was a tropical whale (bryde whale) considering the shape of its dorsal fin and the three ridges on its rostrum, she said.
“If the incident had taken place in Iceland or San Francisco, foreign biologists would have studied the cause behind the mammal getting stranded and micro chipped the mammal to monitor its movement. Our priorities are different,” rued a senior biologist in the state.
A whale stranding alive is a rare event and foreign countries that respect their biodiversity would have dealt with the issue in a more scientific and systematic manner.
More engineers are produced from TN colleges and the state is now the hub for medical tourism. However, life sciences and environment are neglected.
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