Program Launched to Save World's Largest Fish
by Maria A. Schulz
The whale shark, the world's largest fish, is being slaughtered in droves when it returns to the Gujarat coast. Now, the Wildlife Trust of India, in collaboration with local governmental agencies and local businesses, is launching a campaign to save it.
In partnership with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the group has appointed Morari Bapu its ambassador for conservation.
According to Bapu, "Our culture, traditions and beliefs promote the right to life for all living beings. Instilling the sense of conservation in people on the basis of religious beliefs is better and a more permanent way of protecting our natural heritage than policing."
Chief Wildlife Warden of Gujarat, Mr. Pradeep Khanna said, "Morari Bapu, WTI and the forest department are today laying the foundation for instilling moral ethical values in their own small way. It has the potential to turn into a movement in times to come and add a new dimension to wildlife conservation."
Mr. Bapu has vowed to spread the message of "ahimsa hi param dharma" and "atithi devo bhava" among the local fishermen to create awareness about the dire situation facing the whale shark.
The whale sharks can grow up to 50 feet long, but they are innocent creatures who swim close to shore, exposing themselves to poachers armed with spears and harpoons. The fish are hunted mainly for meat, fins and oil.
Popularly known as the "barrel shark," the whale sharks leave their home shores of Australia and Africa to visit Gujarat between March and May every year in large numbers during their gestation period.
"These creatures come to the Gujarat coast to breed. So it can be likened to a daughter coming home to give birth to her child, and then it becomes our responsibility to take care of her," said Morari Bapu.
Bapu added, "In Gujarat we treat guests as God. How can you hurt them? Here the whale sharks also come during the gestation period, meaning they are in the land of their mothers. How can they be killed?"
The Indian government banned fishing and trade of the whale shark in the spring of 2001 by placing the endangered fish in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, thereby giving it the highest legal protection.
Before the protections were imposed, it was estimated that from 150 to 500 whale sharks were hunted every year. Rough estimates indicate that about 1,200-2,000 visited the Saurashtra coast on a yearly basis.
After the protections were put into place, Mr. Khanna claims only three or four cases of poaching have come to notice. This does not mean that the poaching has stopped, or even that the numbers have declined drastically. However, there have been no convictions (which carry a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment) to date.
According to a survey by TNS Mode, an international market research agency commissioned by the WTI, preliminary research indicated that general awareness about the whale shark was very low in Gujarat.
To increase awareness and to offset resistance generated by fishermen afraid of losing a potent revenue generator, the conservation groups wish to develop a tourism industry based on this resource.
Said Aniruddha Mookerjee, WTI's director of programs: "Our strategy will be to first create general awareness about the fish and then use that to create a potential for tourism based on the experience in Australia and South Africa, where this is an organized business on the lines of whale watching."
Mike Panday, an award-winning filmmaker and creator of "Shores of Silence - Whale Sharks in India," couldn't agree more.
"A solution to this may lie in the tourism potential the Gujarat coastline offers," he said. "It is one of the largest whale shark sighting sites in the world. Exploring the tourism angle could provide the solution for the survival of the whale sharks as well as being a source of income for generations of fishermen."
The fishermen of this community have no idea what damage they are doing to the environment. The mass destruction of the whale shark population has seriously disrupted the continuity of the species in the region because of the slow regeneration process.
"Man," Pandey says, "has interfered with nature's delicate balance. We have ruptured the system and if it continues, we may pay the price with our own extinction."
© 2004 Animal News Center, Inc.
The whale shark, the world's largest fish, is being slaughtered in droves when it returns to the Gujarat coast. Now, the Wildlife Trust of India, in collaboration with local governmental agencies and local businesses, is launching a campaign to save it.
In partnership with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the group has appointed Morari Bapu its ambassador for conservation.
According to Bapu, "Our culture, traditions and beliefs promote the right to life for all living beings. Instilling the sense of conservation in people on the basis of religious beliefs is better and a more permanent way of protecting our natural heritage than policing."
Chief Wildlife Warden of Gujarat, Mr. Pradeep Khanna said, "Morari Bapu, WTI and the forest department are today laying the foundation for instilling moral ethical values in their own small way. It has the potential to turn into a movement in times to come and add a new dimension to wildlife conservation."
Mr. Bapu has vowed to spread the message of "ahimsa hi param dharma" and "atithi devo bhava" among the local fishermen to create awareness about the dire situation facing the whale shark.
The whale sharks can grow up to 50 feet long, but they are innocent creatures who swim close to shore, exposing themselves to poachers armed with spears and harpoons. The fish are hunted mainly for meat, fins and oil.
Popularly known as the "barrel shark," the whale sharks leave their home shores of Australia and Africa to visit Gujarat between March and May every year in large numbers during their gestation period.
"These creatures come to the Gujarat coast to breed. So it can be likened to a daughter coming home to give birth to her child, and then it becomes our responsibility to take care of her," said Morari Bapu.
Bapu added, "In Gujarat we treat guests as God. How can you hurt them? Here the whale sharks also come during the gestation period, meaning they are in the land of their mothers. How can they be killed?"
The Indian government banned fishing and trade of the whale shark in the spring of 2001 by placing the endangered fish in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, thereby giving it the highest legal protection.
Before the protections were imposed, it was estimated that from 150 to 500 whale sharks were hunted every year. Rough estimates indicate that about 1,200-2,000 visited the Saurashtra coast on a yearly basis.
After the protections were put into place, Mr. Khanna claims only three or four cases of poaching have come to notice. This does not mean that the poaching has stopped, or even that the numbers have declined drastically. However, there have been no convictions (which carry a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment) to date.
According to a survey by TNS Mode, an international market research agency commissioned by the WTI, preliminary research indicated that general awareness about the whale shark was very low in Gujarat.
To increase awareness and to offset resistance generated by fishermen afraid of losing a potent revenue generator, the conservation groups wish to develop a tourism industry based on this resource.
Said Aniruddha Mookerjee, WTI's director of programs: "Our strategy will be to first create general awareness about the fish and then use that to create a potential for tourism based on the experience in Australia and South Africa, where this is an organized business on the lines of whale watching."
Mike Panday, an award-winning filmmaker and creator of "Shores of Silence - Whale Sharks in India," couldn't agree more.
"A solution to this may lie in the tourism potential the Gujarat coastline offers," he said. "It is one of the largest whale shark sighting sites in the world. Exploring the tourism angle could provide the solution for the survival of the whale sharks as well as being a source of income for generations of fishermen."
The fishermen of this community have no idea what damage they are doing to the environment. The mass destruction of the whale shark population has seriously disrupted the continuity of the species in the region because of the slow regeneration process.
"Man," Pandey says, "has interfered with nature's delicate balance. We have ruptured the system and if it continues, we may pay the price with our own extinction."
© 2004 Animal News Center, Inc.
Use the feedback form below to submit your comments.
Use the form below to email this article to your friends.
