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19171
Open
SC/68C/CMP/03
Sightings of Whales in the Northern Arabian Sea along the Coast of Pakistan in 2020
Muhammad Moazzam
IWC
2021
An observer programme to monitor tuna gillnet operationsin the coastal and offshore waters of Pakistanwas initiated by WWF-Pakistan in 2012. Among other things, these observers were assigned to report observationsof whales encountered during fishing operations. The programme formally concluded in September 2019. However, some of the observers continued to provide information on voluntary basis,ensuring continuedinformation about the spatial and temporal distribution of whalesin the Northern Arabian Sea.During 2020a total of 5sightings of Arabian Sea humpback whales,1 sighting of blue whale, 1 sighting of killer whale and 12sightings of unidentifiedwhaleswere made.Fewerwhales were recorded through the programme in2020(19sightings) thanprevious yearswhen a total of 47, 95, 35 and 26recorded sightings of whale during 2016 to 2019 respectively. This disparity in sighting during 2020 is mainly because of major reduction in number of observers during 2020.
