Conservation actions are in place for whale sharks, a protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act, in Kerala. Village Square looks at one project initiated in the state by the Wildlife Trust of India in 2017, and the perspectives of the fishing communities on such efforts.
When Shahul Hameed, a fisher from Beemapalli, Thiruvananthapuram, accidentally caught a whale shark on one of his fishing trips, some people suggested that it might indicate good luck.
After all, the fish was very rare to come across. But for Shahul, there was nothing lucky about it. It wasn’t his first encounter with a whale shark, and he knew exactly what to do – release the creature back into the ocean, at any cost, including at the expense of his fishing nets.
Shahul, like the other fishermen I talked to, whose fishing expeditions resulted in accidental catches of whale sharks, was aware of the fish’s status as a protected species in India, and the risks associated unless they successfully managed to release it back into the sea.
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The whale shark, known scientifically as Rhincodontypus, is the largest fish in the world. Found in tropical and warm temperature seas, it can grow up to 18 metres long, weigh up to 20,000 kgs, and live up to an age of 130.
The whale shark was once extensively hunted in India, and the species was added to Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) in 2001, to ensure its protection. Despite that status, there is very little scientific information on the life and behavioural patterns of whale sharks in India.
In 2004, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) launched a project aiming at creating awareness about whale sharks among the fishing communities of Gujarat, where sightings were common and hunting was a regular occurrence.
The project has seen success over the years, with the fishermen of Gujarat being proactively involved in the release and rescue of whale sharks and documenting the same as well.
Sajan John, a marine biologist who heads the marine division at the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), notes that extending the project to Kerala and Lakshadweep in 2017 was one of the key steps the organisation has taken regarding whale shark conservation in the country.
The conservation model adopted in these states was similar to that in Gujarat, encouraging the fishermen to save and release the fish and document the event, through financial incentives provided to them.
In the seven years since its launch in Kerala, the project has thus recorded 32 rescue releases of whale sharks in Kerala. Twenty-eight of those cases were documented on video as well by the fishermen involved, who received a monetary aid of Rs. 25,000 each from the WTI.
The Kanyakumari-Thiruvananthapuram coast has recorded more than 90 percent of such cases, Sajan notes. Whether this suggests an aggregation of whale sharks in the region is difficult to conclude, says Abisha C, a researcher on the integrative characterisation of Elasmobranch diversity along the south-west coast of India, at the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS).
The main reason for this is that there is very little knowledge of the migration, travelling and breeding patterns of whale sharks as of now, she adds. While WTI has initiated satellite tagging of whale sharks on the Gujarat coast in the last decade, it has yet to perform the same for the fish in Kerala.
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While appreciative of WTI’s initiative for them, fishers like Shahul Hameed point out that the actual cost involved in the rescue of a whale shark, that gets caught accidentally in their fishing net, is much higher than Rs. 25,000.
Seebil, a fisher from the Poonthura village in Thiruvananthapuram who accidentally caught a whale shark once, attests to this fact.
A fishing net costs around Rs. 1.5 lakhs, Seebil says, and cutting his nets to release a whale shark caused him damages of over Rs. 80,000. While he was thankful for the amount received from WTI, Seebil questions the inaction from the government’s side in providing similar compensation to the fishermen.
Seebil also lamented the fact that, if at all the whale sharks ended up dying, the government was quick to charge the fishermen under the Wildlife Protection Act. He cited the case of another fisherman from Poonthura, who was charged like that and has been fighting the case since.
Sajan feels that the fishers’ concern is genuine. Although marine life falls under wildlife for all practical purposes, in Kerala there isn’t enough effort and interest from the Forest Department’s side on conservation of the ocean’s wildlife, like it is for land animals.
Dr. Biju Kumar A, the Head of the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries at the University of Kerala, says that conservationists and experts like himself have been urging the Kerala government to form a marine division under the Forest Department, for some time now.
Kumar has been an active voice on the marine conservation scene in the state and has worked closely with the fishing communities of South Kerala, particularly those in Thiruvananthapuram. Climate change and the phenomenon of extensive fishing methods in this century have impacted the behaviour and the migration of whale sharks across the globe, including India, he says.
The onus of conservation falling on the fishing communities, whose primary concern is earning their livelihood, is not the ideal way to go in the long term, Dr. Biju Kumar notes.
It would take more than the efforts of a private organisation like the WTI, to implement an effective and enduring conservation model, not just for whale sharks, but for marine life in general, according to him.
Building a structure that not only creates awareness of conservation amongst fishing communities but also motivates them by protecting their livelihood interests at the core, is the need of the hour, he concludes.
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The lead image at the top shows a group of fishermen rescuing and releasing a whale shark at Poonthura, Thiruvananthapuram. (Photo by Anu Murukan)
Bharath Thampi is an independent journalist and documentarian based in Trivandrum, Kerala. He has worked extensively on longform features involving topics of social, political and cultural aspects, particularly pertaining to Kerala.
Filmed by Anu Murukan.
The reporter would like to thank Ajith Shangumugham and Wildlife Trust Of India (WTI)
