Whale shark shocks fishing crew

Karachi: Mohammad Dilawar was hoping his luck might have changed in a big way as his nets wrapped around a whopping catch during a recent fishing trip in the Arabian Sea.

It took Dilawar and his crew of six three-and-a-half hours to haul up the mammoth creature which later turned out to be a whale shark that the experienced crew had never come across in local waters.

"We were all perspiring and our palms were gashed as we pulled up the ropes but I thought that it might be something that might change my fate," Dilawar said at the Karachi Fish Harbour, where the 45-foot fish weighing approximately 20 tonnes lay surrounded by stunned visitors.

Dilawar's hard work did not prove very rewarding though. A contractor bought the whale for 200,000 rupees (Dh8,077) which just about covered the cost of Dilawar's 12-day trip on the Arabian Sea.

People were teeming around the harbour after hearing about the monstrous fish. A batch of six students of a local nursing school were among the visitors.

Unseemly row

"We came to see this fish but it was very disappointing to see people trying to clamber on top of it, this is sheer disrespect for the animal," Usman Zada, 20, one of the nursing students said.

Meanwhile, the new owner of the fish got into an altercation with police about how best to preserve his purchase. The owner tried to throw a heavy cloth cover on the fish but police officials insisted he leave it uncovered. The brawl seemed to put off many people gathered in the area.

"We came here to see the fish after the media hype but to our dismay they are not allowing [us] to see it," Sohail Shah, a young businessman said.

Families and children were also turning up. Naseem Bano, a homemaker, admitted she was so excited that she had not even cooked a meal for her daughters on their return from college. "I heard of it but wanted to see for myself," she said.

Some people said the sight of the fish had reinforced their faith. "We always read in the Quran about Prophet Younus who survived in the stomach of a big fish and always wondered as to how," said Fayyaz Hussain, one of the many curious visitors. "But now I can see with my eyes that such a huge fish exists and it is very much possible," he said.

Fisheries department authorities were planning to remove the fish from the area to preserve it for research and to determine the cause of its death. Whale sharks are a protected species and their hunting is prohibited all over the world.

"It was found dead by the fishermen, so we using all resources at our disposal to determine the cause and how to prevent such incidents," said Shamsul Haq, director, operations, at Karachi Fish Harbour.