Story:
18 Feet Shark Fish Found Dead in Tamil Nadu
Fact Check:
A picture message in circulation on social media purports to show a giant 18 Feet Shark Fish Found Dead in Tamil Nadu. It shows an excavator crane machine carrying a huge fish, which appears unrealistically large. The picture and the story accompanying it are real – it in fact shows a Whale Shark.
18 Feet Shark Fish – Whale Shark
Yes, what you see in the picture is in fact an 18.8-foot-long Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) found dead near Tuticorin city of Tamil Nadu, India. On the night of 3rd April 2019, it was spotted close to the shore at Inigo Nagar, in the Tuticorin Range of Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park. Struggling in shallow waters, the large creature could not get back into deep sea. So, local fishermen and forest department personnel rescued the whale shark and left it in deep sea. But sadly, the next day morning the whale shark washed ashore dead at nearly the same place where it was found.
Autopsy revealed the juvenile female whale shark suffered an injury behind the head. Consequently, the internal organs failed one after the other causing slow death. Veterinarians also said the giant shark could have been hit by the propeller of a deep sea fishing boat. For your information, Whale Shark is a slow-moving shark, large extant fish species holding records because of its size. This particular female whale shark aged between seven to ten years weighed about one tonne.
Hoax or Fact:
Fact.
References:
Left in deep sea, 18-foot whale shark washes ashore dead off Tuticorin
0 Comments