Monday, January 10, 2005
With the recent problems that our preferred dive boat, White Manta, encountered with the Indonesian authorities last year, another year passed without me seeing a whale shark.
The declining numbers of the world's largest fish, and the reduction in size of those seen (indicating that breeding females are being fished out) moved CITES to post a complete ban on the trade in Whale shark products.
It makes stories such as this one, posted in the Bangladesh Star in December 2004, all the more sickening.
The fisherman who claims this is a tiger shark should buy himself a better fish identification book. His comment that the shark was smarter than him probably remains true.
Giant sharks give in after 28hr battleStaff Correspondent, Ctg
Fishermen caught two gigantic sharks in the Bay of Bengal after a 28-hour-long battle since Tuesday morning as killing of the carnivorous marine fish continues in the deep sea.
Hundreds of curious Chittagong people gathered from early morning yesterday at the Fishery Ghat in the city's Firingee Bazar area to have a glance at the two sharks, which weighed about eight and four tonnes.
The sharks, which were brought to the bank of the Fishery Ghat from the deep sea the previous night, were beached with a crane when this report was written at 4.00pm yesterday.
"We sailed out from the Fishery Ghat on an engine boat named Sultan Shah four days ago, drifted deep into the Bay of Bengal and discovered the water giants on Tuesday (December 7) morning," Harun Majhee, who led a team of 150-fishermen to the deep-sea adventure, told reporters while narrating one of the most thrilling experiences of his life.
Harun went on: "Our fight actually began from then. We spread our nets around the two sharks but they were smarter than us for a few hours in the deep sea. Our strategy was to drive the two fish towards fresh water from salt water because we were aware of the fact that they (sharks) would not survive for long in fresh water."
"It took nearly 28-hours to complete our mission and the two sharks became virtually lifeless as soon as we dragged them to the fresh water of the Karnaphuli estuary," he said.
Harun said they knew the larger shark was a 'Bagha Hungor' (Tiger Shark) and that it could be sold at Tk 3 lakh in the market. One Nizam Sowdagar owned the boat, said the 45-year-old excited fisherman
The declining numbers of the world's largest fish, and the reduction in size of those seen (indicating that breeding females are being fished out) moved CITES to post a complete ban on the trade in Whale shark products.
It makes stories such as this one, posted in the Bangladesh Star in December 2004, all the more sickening.
The fisherman who claims this is a tiger shark should buy himself a better fish identification book. His comment that the shark was smarter than him probably remains true.
Giant sharks give in after 28hr battleStaff Correspondent, Ctg
Fishermen caught two gigantic sharks in the Bay of Bengal after a 28-hour-long battle since Tuesday morning as killing of the carnivorous marine fish continues in the deep sea.
Hundreds of curious Chittagong people gathered from early morning yesterday at the Fishery Ghat in the city's Firingee Bazar area to have a glance at the two sharks, which weighed about eight and four tonnes.
The sharks, which were brought to the bank of the Fishery Ghat from the deep sea the previous night, were beached with a crane when this report was written at 4.00pm yesterday.
"We sailed out from the Fishery Ghat on an engine boat named Sultan Shah four days ago, drifted deep into the Bay of Bengal and discovered the water giants on Tuesday (December 7) morning," Harun Majhee, who led a team of 150-fishermen to the deep-sea adventure, told reporters while narrating one of the most thrilling experiences of his life.
Harun went on: "Our fight actually began from then. We spread our nets around the two sharks but they were smarter than us for a few hours in the deep sea. Our strategy was to drive the two fish towards fresh water from salt water because we were aware of the fact that they (sharks) would not survive for long in fresh water."
"It took nearly 28-hours to complete our mission and the two sharks became virtually lifeless as soon as we dragged them to the fresh water of the Karnaphuli estuary," he said.
Harun said they knew the larger shark was a 'Bagha Hungor' (Tiger Shark) and that it could be sold at Tk 3 lakh in the market. One Nizam Sowdagar owned the boat, said the 45-year-old excited fisherman
