Gujarat Fishermen End Shark Hunting

February 18, 2007

Release from: Swati Thiyagarajan
NDTV.com (India)

A religious man has convinced fishermen in Gujarat to stop hunting whale sharks where hundreds of them are killed despite a government ban.

The dried fin of a whale shark can fetch up to five thousand rupees and as much money for its meat.

Thousands of whale sharks visit us the coast of Gujarat between November and April each year.

Whale sharks are rare fish and not much is known about them except that they are migratory.

Many of them come from Australia through the warm waters of the Indian ocean to Gujarat. For the last few decades they were slaughtered in the thousands every season for their meat.

The international market demand making it very lucrative for the fishermen who caught them.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests banned the hunting and killing of sharks when they put all sharks on schedule one of the wildlife act in July 2001.

But this hardly stopped the trade as not surprisingly there was no enforcement of the ban.

But ever since a religious leader known as Murari Bapu went into the ocean in Veravel and blessed a shark entangled in a net wishing it be freed - hunting of the shark has stopped.

"Earlier fishermen used to earn money from selling shark, but now we are trying to save them," Bapu said.

The hope is that this spirit of sacrifice and goodwill towards this gentle giant continues and they can come to India to safe waters.