A rare blue whale has been sighted at Gadani beach near Gawadar , the local fishermen and residents of the area reported on Monday.
Today was the second time the creature was seen on the sea surface first at 4:30 pm on Sunday and then early morning on Monday .
One of the fishermen recorded the whale’s movements.
The fishermen who witnessed the spectacle estimated the whale’s length to be around 100 feet and its width approximately 50 feet, with a potential weight exceeding 150 tonnes.
blue whale is the largest animal on the planet, weighing as much as 200 tons, equal to 33 elephants. Its heart is said to be the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and it has a stomach capacity to hold one ton of krill, which is just a quarter of its daily meal requirement.
They are the loudest animals, louder than a jet engine; their calls reach 188 decibels, while a jet’s reach just 140 decibels.
While it’s not uncommon for whales to be seen along Balochistan’s coast, where dead whales often wash up, fishermen emphasized that this was the first time one had been spotted near Gadani’s shores.
In a video capturing the moment, excited fishermen can be heard expressing their amazement, with some cautioning others to keep their distance, fearing the whale might attack, while others playfully referred to it as a shark.
In February of this year, an Indo-Pacific finless dolphin was discovered dead on Gwadar’s coast in Balochistan after becoming “trapped and ensnared” in a fishing net.
Fishermen brought the dolphin ashore while it remained entangled in the fishing net and left it there, as it held no commercial value.
Referring to data provided by the WWF, it was mentioned that last year, six Indo-Pacific finless porpoises perished due to entanglement in gillnets in Pakistan, with three of them washing up in Gwadar.
Prior to that incident, a Bryde’s whale measuring 27 feet in length was found dead near Balochistan’s coast in a remote area known as Raini Hor, located between Pasni and Shumal Bundar.