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Whale Shark

February 8, 2012 by · Comments Off on Whale Shark 

Whale Shark, A huge whale shark was caught Tuesday morning just 90 miles offshore from the Pakistani city of Karachi. It took four hours and two cranes to lift the 15,430-pound shark out of the water. According to reports, the enormous fish was between 35- and 40-feet long.

The unusual spectacle got the attention of the locals who flocked to Karachi’s harbor to catch a glimpse of the whale shark.

“It was dead when my men found it,” said Muhammad Yousuf, the owner of the boat used to haul the whale shark to the port, Pakistan’s Express Tribune reports.

Later in the day, the carcass of the whale was sold for 200,000 Rupees ($2,200) and will be put on public display for three days at the harbor’s auction hall. The Express Tribune reports that the buyer will charge visitors a fee to see the whale shark.

“I have bought the fish, which usually has no significant commercial value, with the help of my friends just to appreciate the efforts of the fishermen who deserve some reward after spending an entire day in the open sea,” said Haji Qasim, the Pakistani Dawn newspaper reports.

Qasim said that he will “sell the meat to the people running poultry meal business.”

About 35 whale sharks have been brought dead or captured in the last seven years nearby the Karachi port, said Mohammad Moazzam Khan, a consultant with Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), according to Dawn.

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