Whale tissues go for tests

Thoothukudi: Tissue samples of the dead short finned pilot whales on Manappad beach have been collected to establish the cause of the stranding and death of the animals. After random postmortems were conducted by senior veterinarians from the state department of animal husbandry, the whales were buried on the Manappad shore where they had beached.

According to Isaac Jeyakumar, assistant director of fisheries (marine), the samples collected from the dead whales have been sent to Wildlife institute of India (WII) at Dehradun for further testing.

Isaac ruled out the possibility of the mammals having been affected by toxic wastes or oil spillage from ships as no other marine species in the region has been affected.

The officer further added that the animals seemed apparently healthy before getting stranded and showed no obvious injuries.

The disorientation of the whales towards the shallow area might have been caused by the changing water currents and wind.

It is also suspected that the electromagnetic fields created by the wave energy devices deployed in the sea might have disoriented the whale pod towards the shallow area. The official hastened to add that more detailed analysis was needed before they could speculate on the beaching of the mammals. Apart from the tissue samples sent to Wildlife Institute of India, the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Fisheries college and research institute (FC&RI), Thoothukudi, department of animal husbandry and Suganthi Devathasan Marine Research Institute (SDMRI) too collected skin samples that will be helpful to find the population of the whales in the region. Deepak Bilgi, Wildlife warden, Gulf of Mannar National Marine Park, said the live animals of the pod were being successfully pushed back into deep waters since last night using fishing boats. Five of the whales returned to the shore again, which too were drove into deeper water, Deepak added.