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Blue whale sighting - September 2017

Unusual sighting: gigantic blue whale along with calf filmed off Churna Island. To the utter surprise of cetacean experts, a gigantic mother blue whale and calf were sighted off Churna Island, Balochistan, recently. This is the first sighting of live blue whales in Pakistani waters. WWF-Pakistan's trained skipper, Saeed Zaman while fishing for tuna spotted a very large sized animal together with its baby in waters. According to the fisherman, the mother whale was around 17 metres in length, almost the same size of their fishing boat whereas the calf surfaced rarely so its size could not be assessed. Blue whales are considered to be the largest animal ever to have existed on this planet with authentic record of length of about 30 metres. The global population of this species is estimated to be between 10,000 to 25,000 and is considered as endangered according to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. A blue whale typically gives birth once every two to three years after a gestation period of 10 to 12 months. The calf weighs about 2.5 tonnes and is usually around 7 metres in length. Despite having an enormous body, a blue whale's diet includes nearly tiny shrimplike animals called krill or pelagic shrimp. According to experts, during certain times of the year, a single adult blue whale consumes about 4 tonnes of krill a day. The Arabian Sea is known to have a number of species of pelagic shrimp which could be the reason for the presence of this animal in these waters.

Posted by WWF-Pakistan on Thursday, September 14, 2017