KARACHI: A three-metre long bottlenose dolphin that recently got entangled in a fishing net off Malan, Balochistan coast, was successfully released back into the sea by fishermen.

“Fishermen immediately stop the fishing, cut their net and safely rescued the dolphin in an hour-long effort,” the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan reported on Friday.

One of the top predators in the oceanic ecosystem, dolphins are extremely sensitive to entanglement in fishing nets. In such cases, they cannot come out on the sea surface to breathe and thus drown and die. Hence, efforts to save and release such animals often fail and animals do not survive.

“Under its project supported by the Food and Agricultural Organization, the Global Environmental Facility and Common Oceans, the WWF-P has trained more than 100 fishermen operating in Pakistani waters to rescue and release threatened marine species,” it said.

Twenty-two species of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) are found in Pakistan; of these bottlenose dolphins are the most common species. Two species of bottlenose dolphins are found in Pakistan; the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin and the common bottlenose dolphin.

All cetaceans, including whales and dolphins, were declared protected species under the fisheries legislations of Sindh and Balochistan governments last year.

They are also declared protected species under the Balochistan Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Act 2014.

“With the management and legislative regime in place, now measures to protect marine mammals can be undertaken in an effective way,” it said.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2017