KARACHI, May 22: Over a thousand dolphins, whales and porpoises are killed every year in Pakistan mainly due to the widespread use of large gillnets that are prohibited under a United Nations General Assembly resolution.

This was pointed out during a national workshop held to devise a strategy for cetacean conservation on Wednesday.

The speakers called for preparing an action plan to protect the country’s cetacean species (whales, dolphins and porpoises) with an effective implementation of the present laws relating to the endangered Indus river dolphin which, they said, continued to be caught in its protected habitat.

The programme was organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in collaboration with National Centre for Maritime Policy Research of Bahria University, Karachi campus; Pakistan Whale and Dolphin Society, Australian Marine Mammal Centre and Indo-Pacific Cetacean Research and Conservation Foundation funded by the Australian government.

Highlighting the characteristics of cetacean species, the speakers explained that they were aquatic mammals found in both freshwater and marine environment. Nineteen species of cetaceans had so far been reported found in Pakistan, also home to the blue whale, known to be the world’s largest animal, as well as the finless porpoise, one of the smallest marine cetacean species.

“Of the 18 cetacean species found in Pakistan, three are baleen whales while the remaining are toothed whales and dolphins. These are considered flagship species by conservation organisations on account of their important role in marine environment and their threatened status,” said Mohammad Moazzam Khan, technical adviser at the WWF.

Unregulated use of gillnets in commercial fishing and a huge increase in fishing vessels, he said, were major threats to the cetacean species. Similarly, increasing pollution had wiped out dolphins in many areas.

“The fishing fleet increased from 2,133 and 4,355 (in 1986) to 6,636 and 10,689 in Sindh and Balochistan, respectively, in 2011. The United Nations resolution on gillnets has restricted its length to 2.5km. However, in Pakistan the average size of a gillnet was from 10km to 12km while exceptionally large size gillnets (up to 24km) are also in use,” he explained.

Mortalities of cetaceans, he said, were being recorded and initial estimates showed that over 1,000 dolphins, porpoises and whales were killed every year.

Speaking on the Indus blind dolphin, Uzma Khan, biodiversity director of the WWF, said that the species, one of the world’s rarest mammal, was the only four obligatory freshwater cetaceans found in Pakistan. In the 1870s, it was found in all the four tributaries of the Indus river. However, now most remain in the 1,200km stretch of the river.

“A very small population of the species is also found in India,” she said, adding that a research had shown that the dolphin found in Pakistan was not genetically diversified in contrast to its counterpart in the Ganges river.

About 137 cases of dolphins’ stranding, she said, had been reported in Pakistan from 1992 to 2012. Of them, 103 dolphins were rescued and released back into the waters while 34 dolphins died during a rescue operation.

She suggested the need for a national conservation strategy for the endemic mammal for 10 years that, she said, should include the establishment of a dolphin mortality network, capacity building in cetacean medicine, extending its protected area in Punjab, revival of an international body on Asian river dolphin and research on the mammal’s translocation from a high-density zone to a low-density area.

Giving a presentation on an assessment of cetacean stranding along Pakistan’s coast, Shoaib Kiyani, a lecturer at the Institute of Marine Sciences, UK, referred to a recent research and said that at least four new records of toothed cetaceans (sperm whale, Cuvier’s beaked whale, striped dolphin and pantropical spotted dolphin) had been documented.

“Twenty-two per cent of the cetacean samples examined showed signs of injuries while no reason of death could be identified in 74 samples. These mammals might have died after getting entangled in a fishing gear,” he said.

Wildlife conservator Umeed Khalid informed the audience that some marine species of Pakistan (and other range states) were approved for listing on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species on Wild Flora and Fauna Appendix II this year. They were: scalloped hammer-head shark, oceanic whitetip shark and porbeagle shark and manta ray.

The species already existing on the CITES Appendix 1 and Appendix II were: markhor snow leopard, Ladakh urial, peregrine falcon, marsh crocodile, whales, marine turtles, corals, Punjab and Sindh urial, saker falcon, Alexandrine and plum-headed parakeets, Indian spiny-tailed lizard star tortoise and bottle-nosed dolphin.

“International (commercial) trade is generally prohibited for species listed under the Appendix 1 while international trade is permitted but controlled for species listed in the Appendix II category,” he said.

Deputy conservator wildlife Sindh Dr Fehmida Firdous, director-general of the Marine Fisheries Department Shaukat Hussain, director-general of the National Centre for Maritime Policy Research retired vice admiral Asaf Humayun and Dr Ejaz Ahmed and Rab Nawaz, both representing the WWF, also spoke.