Scared villagers kill rare whale shark

  TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 09, 2003 10:20:00 PM ]  KOLKATA: The coastal town of Digha in West Bengal had a surprise visitor on Tuesday - an adolescent whale shark all of 22 feet in length.    However, the scared fishermen who suddenly found the large fish entangled in their net, brutally killed it, first chopping off its fin and then dragging it along the shallow coast near the beach as it tried to fight its way out. The whale shark is incidentally the largest fish in the world measuring upto 45 feet in length.    Found usually off the Florida coast in the Atlantic, it is also seen in the warmer regions of the world around the equator. However, the West Bengal coast has seldom seen any shark, let alone the Whale Shark.    "The Bay of Bengal is known to be a home of hammerhead sharks. But I can't recall a Whale Shark ever," said Raja Chatterjee of the NGO Junglee. Members of the NGO rushed to the coastal tourist report as news of the shark's capture spread.    "It was a bad sight. The scared fishermen had chopped off parts of the fish. Yet it was an almost perfect specimen of the species. We have taken photographs and sent off copies to the Zoological Survey of India," Chatterjee said.    Chatterjee said the whale shark has a huge mouth which can be up to 4 feet wide. It has a wide, flat head, a rounded snout, small eyes, 5 very large gill slits, 2 dorsal fins on its back and 2 pectoral fins on its sides.    It has distinctive light-yellow markings on its very thick dark gray skin. Its skin is up to 4 inches thick. Measured upto 46 feet, it weights up to 15 tons. The average size is 25 feet. Females are larger than males like most sharks.    "Whale sharks have about 3,000 very tiny teeth but they are of little use. As it swims with its mouth open, it sucks masses of water filled with prey into its mouth and through spongy tissue between its 5 large gill arches. It can process over 1500 gallons (6000 liters) of water each hour," he said.    When contacted, zoologist S.K. Kundu said "Whale sharks live in warm water near the equator both along the coast and in the open seas. They spend most of their time near the surface. They are harmless to people and usually indifferent to divers. However, they have long lives and it's estimated that whale sharks may live up to 100 - 150 years".  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=4289