Puri: Environmentalists and animal lovers have expressed concern over unregulated fishing using trawlers and mechanised boats along the coast here after recovery of a carcass of an Indo-Pacific finless porpoise from the city beach, Monday.
Monday’s incident was the fourth in the past two months when the carcass of a rare aquatic animal has been recovered from the beach here.
Sources said a few locals spotted the carcass of a dolphin-like animal on Monday morning and informed the Forest department.
Soon, Forest department officials recovered the carcass and conducted a post-mortem. Several injury marks were spotted on the carcass, sources said.
“We suspect that the 4-foot-long mammal might have died after colliding with a fishing trawler. But the exact cause of its death will be known after receiving the post-mortem report,” said Balukhand ranger Saroj Mohanty.
The carcasses of a bottlenose dolphin and an Indo-Pacific finless porpoise were found from Chandrabhaga beach and city beach respectively in April.
Besides, an Irrawaddy dolphin had washed ashore May 15. However, the aquatic animal died when Forest department officials released it in a river.
“Several dolphins and other rare aquatic animals have died in the coastal sea due to fishing with trawlers. The Forest department and Marine Fisheries department should introduce certain measures to deal with the situation,” said an environmentalist.
Reeta Jayasankar, a scientist at city-based Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), claimed that Indo-Pacific finless porpoises (neophocaena phocaenoides) were initially spotted in the western coast of India. The aquatic animal has been found in the eastern coast recently, she said.
