A group of fishermen working off the coast of Gwadar, one of Pakistan’s oldest fishing towns, spotted a pod of six endangered Arabian humpback whales swimming in the offshore waters.
This rare sighting, confirmed by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan, offers a glimmer of hope for ongoing efforts to restore the region’s small humpback whale populations.
As Dawn reported, this encounter, which occurred in Pakistani waters in early November, is particularly significant because previously reported Arabian humpback whale sightings in this region had involved just one or two whales.
This pod of six indicates that the population of this whale species is recovering following decades of pressure from commercial whaling.
The global commercial whaling boom reached its peak in the 1960s, which caused whale populations to decline, according to Our World in Data. About 1.3 million whales were caught and killed between the 1950s and the 1960s.
Per the Environmental Investigation Agency, a total of 2.9 million whales were killed worldwide by the end of the 20th century,
Some whale populations fell by over 95%, including blue whales and humpback whales — the former currently sits at 5,000 individuals, according to Our World in Data, and the latter, having rebounded from a low point of 10,000 to 15,000 individuals, now comprises an estimated 80,000, according to the Endangered Species Coalition.
In 1982, the International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling, putting a pause to the whale-hunting trade. That temporary break has persisted — aside from in Norway, Iceland, and Japan — allowing endangered whale species, such as the Arabian humpback whale, to repopulate.
Although industry whaling is no longer permitted, the Arabian humpback whale population now faces a heightened risk of entanglement by ghost fishing gear, which threatens marine life of all sizes.
The WWF-Pakistan has been working on developing marine protected areas for the Arabian humpback whale, according to its website.
The organization has been conducting research to better understand the whale species, its range, and population health. It is also engaging communities to fish sustainably, as well as to be the eyes and ears in the field, reporting when this whale species has been spotted.
Regular reports of sightings by fishers have helped WWF-Pakistan better understand the success of recovery efforts for this endangered whale species.
“The awareness we’ve created among coastal communities and the public is generating invaluable information for the conservation of these magnificent species, and that deserves recognition,” said Rab Nawaz, senior director biodiversity at WWF-Pakistan, per Dawn.
Researchers have also turned to underwater cameras to better monitor and study marine life, providing more long-term, consistent, and reliable data on recovering marine species while remaining minimally invasive to marine life.
With underwater cameras, scientists were able to record the sliteye shark in deep-sea environments in the Indian Ocean for the first time.
At the University of Plymouth in England, scientists used underwater camera systems to observe the tangible benefits of artificial reefs on biodiversity in ocean environments.
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