KARACHI: A number of Spinetail mobula recently caught off the beach of Ras Malan in Balochistan’s Lasbela district were safely released into the sea by fishermen with the help of World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) staff.

This was the first time when the species classified as ‘near threatened’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been released back into the sea. Fishermen in Balochistan had earlier safely released six whale sharks, another threatened species, into the sea.

All species belonging to the mobulid family (including Spinetail mobula, also called mobula japanica and Devilray) are caught as a by-catch in Pakistan and are either usually killed and thrown back into the sea or used for making fish meal.

In other parts of the world, however, mobulas and rays are targeted for their fins and gill rakers that the animal uses for filter-feeding.

“Mobulas were a common occurrence four decades ago and one would find some specimens having a disc breadth of up to seven metres. They had been recorded either basking or leaping out of water behind Churna Island. Their number has significantly declined and this has happened because of their frequent mortality in fishing gears particularly gillnets and low reproductive potential,” said Mohammad Moazzam Khan, technical adviser on marine resources of the WWF.

The marine animal, he said, gave birth to a single pup at a time and it was believed that the female reproduced only a few times during her life.

According to Mr Khan, six species of mobulid that belong to two genra (manta and mobula) are found in Pakistan and are considered ‘threatened’ or ‘near threatened’. Giant manta (Manta birostris) is the largest of the mobulid found in Pakistan and there had been no record of this species from Pakistani waters for over 30 years.

“The WWF-P has collected a specimen of the giant manta in Pakistan in April this year at the Karachi fish harbour that has also reported another species (Manta alfredi) for the first time,” he said.

The organisation, he said, had started a project on the mobulid of Pakistan last year and observed that about 1,500 tonnes of mobulid had landed along the coast. The Karachi fish harbour and Gwadar were the main areas where these species landed.

“Although most fishermen sell their catch for processing as fish meal, we have found that some people are exporting wings of mobulid to Southeast Asian countries after freezing them,” he said.

WWF-P director Rab Nawaz added that a programme would be initiated to conserve mobulid population in Pakistan and the organisation also planned to share information on the marine animal in the upcoming international shark conference in Durban, South Africa.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2014