Rare Juvenile Whale Sharks Sighted in Maharashtra

Local fishermen found two whale sharks entangled in their nets Wednesday.

'One of the fish managed to escape while the other, about eight feet long, was brought through a channel to a shallow pool in the shore, where it died Thursday morning,' Dhiresh Joshi of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) told IANS.

Whale sharks have been sighted in the past in several coastal regions in the country, but sightings of juveniles are extremely rare.

'This is an exciting find and is very rare. The sighting also indicates that there could be a breeding population nearby. The breeding grounds of whale sharks have been elusive to scientists around the world,' Joshi said Saturday.

Whale sharks are protected under schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.

'Sarang Kulkarni, a marine biologist in the area, came to know of the incident and requested WTI for emergency relief. The fish, however, died before help could reach the site,' Joshi added.