Thoothukudi: Marine research experts ridiculed the statement of the anti-nuclear activist SP. Udayakumar that the discharge of nuclear waste from the Kudankulam nuclear power project (KKNPP) had caused the mass death of short finned pilot whales at the Manappad beach in this district.
Dr J K Patterson Edward, director of Suganthi Devathasan Marine Research Institute (SDMRI), an institute affiliated to the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, said that short finned pilot whales are oceanic animals, living only in the deep sea at a minimum depth of 300 mts.” Such deep areas can be located around 50 nautical miles offshore in the Bay of Bengal, where the presence of nuclear effluents has not been found,” said Patterson.
The expert added that a similar mass death of the same kind of whales in the same region occurred 43 years ago during the same period on January 14, 1973, citing evidence from the old records of the Central Marine Fisheries Institute (CMFRI).
At that time, there was no big industry to be blamed for poisoning 147 marine
animals on the coast. Even the state’s oldest thermal power plant, the Tuticorin thermal power station (TTPS) was established in 1979, six years after that, he pointed out.
Fisheries experts also discounted the rumour spread by some soothsayers in the temple town of Tiruchendur that the mass death was a bad omen, signaling the occurrence of a tsunami-like tragedy in the near future.”
The reason for the death of the 42 whales on Tuesday can be known only after the post-mortem,” said Deepak S Bilgi, wildlife warden of the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park. With no external injuries on any of the dead whales, fisheries experts assume that they could have drifted into shallow waters and suffocated to death.
What scientists say about whale and their migration
Most whale species travel in groups as a survival strategy, with dominant whales leading the pod. If the dominant whale becomes sick or confused, it may lead the pod too close to shore and get trapped by a low tide.
Sperm whales are one of the biggest and powerful aquatic mammals and can dive up to 2,000 metres and can hold breath for two hours, but their migration pattern and their home range in Indian Ocean is a subject that has to be explored in detail.
Whales the massive fish is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The adult is reported to weigh around 20 to 30 tonnes. Whale and whale sharks live in tropical and warm open oceans with a lifespan of about 70 years.
