Dwarka: A 40 ft long adult whale shark caught in a gill net, was released by the fishermen, off the coast of Mithapur, where the corporate house, Tata Chemicals’ volunteer staff are spearheading a Wildlife Trust of India(WTI) campaign to protect the world’s largest fish.

In a unique and unheard of gesture on the coast of Gujarat , the fishing boat Kamleshwar Sagar, owned by K R Sea foods, untangled the huge shark from its nets and let it go. It is not known if the shark was injured in the process.

“This is the direct result of our campaign,” an ecstatic Vivek Talwar of Tata Chemicals said,” a few years ago this would have been a dead fish.” The fish, which is a plankton feeder, is harmless despite its size and migrates from the African coast to breed in the Arabian sea , scientists believe.

The Whale shark, which was the first fish to be included in the Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, used to be slaughtered in large numbers off the Gujarat coast for its oil and meat, which was being exported to south east Asian countries. Although its hunting and trade is banned after the notification, its trade in small numbers may still be continuing.

“An excited Tushar Chamadia of K R Foods woke me up early in the morning to talk about this whale shark sighting some 10 kilometers off the coast of Dwarka,” Dhiresh Joshi, WTI’s Whale Shark campaign manager said.

The boat had placed a 200 meter-long nylon gill-net on the night of September 29 and found the giant fish entangled in it the next morning. “At about 6 am the fishermen found a whale shark entangled in the net. They were very excited and amazed at this gigantic fish, which was as large as the 40 ft boat they were on,” Joshi said.

“The captain and the crew were aware of this fish and had been instructed strictly by Chamadia not to harm it. The captain had seen the life-sized model of the fish during the ongoing campaign along with the street play. However, this is the first time he had seen a live one. He immediately set about cutting the net to release the fish,” Joshi added.

Chamadia was onshore when he heard the news. He later said:” I got the news about the whale shark being caught in the net and being released. I am very happy that my crew has acted responsibly. Even though the loss of net involved several thousand rupees, I don’t mind. I am happy that I have been able to save one fish, which is the pride of Gujarat . My family has been in the fishing business since 40 years and what happened today makes me feel proud.

The campaign to save the whale shark, which is run with the support of two industrial houses with manufacturing units in the region, Tata Chemicals Ltd. and Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd, has begun to show heartening results. The former has not only provided financial and infrastructural support to the campaign, but its employees have become enthusiastic volunteers in spreading the message.

“The project has already started showing results”, said Talwar. “The communication and dissemination of information taking place both at the general public at large and at the fishing community the results of which are that fishermen are going out of their way to save the whale shark even at the cost of their net. This is a very strong indicator that the programme has impacted the community at large. I am very happy that the fishermen responded positively,” Talwar said.