On 20th January, 1992, an adult female sei whale, measuring 14.0 m in total length and weighing about 10 tonnes stranded at Theedai near the marine fish farm of Central

Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Mandapam Camp

Jayaprakash, A A

Kasinathan, C

Marichamy, R

Nammalwar, P

Raju, A

Ramamoorthy, N

Sethuraman, V

CMFRI Digital Repository

ISSN 0254-380 X HT$3RJI ICAR :4£iiG£i[Laj IEI MARINE FISHERIES INFORMATION SERVICE No. 117 JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER 1992 - " • S ^ " r T ^ T f t c f ^ t ^ TECHNICAL AND f ^ R r l ! * 3 f^F»T«c^t EXTENSION SERIES feeler CTpff Tnl^rest CENTRAL MARINE FISHERIES OTjfteira" TTTOCT RESEARCH INSTITUTE ^StfSCT, *HTcT COCHIN, INDIA INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ON THE STRANDING OP SEI WHALE, BA MANDAPAM ALONG THE The frequency of stranding of whales, in the east coast is more as may be seen from the published information. It appears that the Sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis frequents the coastal waters more often and gets stranded on many occasions. This is the eighth record of the stranding of Sei whale from the Indian waters. (Table 2). On 20th January, 1992, the fishermen at Theedai near the marine fish farm of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Mandapam Camp noticed a live whale struggling hard to move towards the coastal waters in the Palk Bay region. In that process, the whale was washed ashore and remained close to the shore in live condition and died in the early morning hours on 23rd January, 1992. The stranded whale was identified as Sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis Lesson (Fig. 1). The whale was an adult female, measuring 14.0 m in total length and weighing about 10 tonnes. The Sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis Les-•Reported by : P. Nammalwar, R Marlchamy, A. Raju, A.A. Ji Mandapam Regional Centre of CMFRI, Mandapam Camp - 623 LAENOPTERA BOREAUS LESSON AT PALK BAY COAST * son is widely distributed in all the oceans of the world. It is most abundantly found in Norwegian and South African regions. Though, the whales are equipped with sonar, at times, they get stranded due to some error in navigation while pursuing their prey in shallow areas. In few instances, the whales have been found struggling in shallow waters to get back into the sea. Though they are stranded in all the months of year, most of the strandings take place during December and January which shows the effect of northeast monsoon, when the sea is rough. On the east coast, it was stranded on seven occasions while on the west coast only once at Sikka (Gulf of Kutch). The morphometric measurements are given in Table. 1. The staff of the Tamil Nadu Fisheries Department made arrangements to extract oil from the carcass before burial near the shore. The authorities of the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park made arrangements to bury the whale and exhume the skeleton for their reference Musuem. akash, C. Kasinathan, N. Ramamoorthy and V. Sethuraman, 18 TABLE 1. Morphometric characters of the stranded whale Morphometric characters Measurements Total length (tip of upper jaw to the tip of caudal fin) Tip of upper jaw to the notch of caudal fluke Tip of upper jaw to caudal peduncle Tip of upper jaw to origin of dorsal fin Tip of upper jaw to anterior insertion of flippers Flipper length Breadth of flipper at base Number of throat grooves Tip of upper Jaw to the origin of eye Diameter of eye Length of lower jaw Length of upper jaw Tip of upper jaw to origin of blow-hole Breadth of blow-hole Tip of upper jaw to origin of genital slit Sex Approximate weight (in tonnes) (cm) 1400 1240 1200 950 360 180 45 50 240 20 280 300 200 25 910 $ 10 safi! Fig. 1. The Sei Whale Balaenoptera borealis Lesson stranded at Mandapam along the Palk Bay Coast. TABLE 2. Stranding of Sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis along the Indian coasts S. No. Date of stranding Place Total length (m) Sex Reference 23.12.1971 Manakad near Mandapam Camp 15.53 G. Venkataraman et al.. (1973). Indian J. Fish., 20 (2) : 634-638. 31.01.1981 Mallipatnam 18.03.1983 Dhanushkodi 26.02.1988 Tuticorin 18.05.1988 Kayalpatnam 9.90 13.80 12.00 10.02 6. 7. 8. May, 1988 14.08.1988 21.01.1992 Tuticorin Sikka (Off Gulf of Kutch) Theedai near Mandapam Camp 7.50 9.76 14.00 P. S. B. R James & R Soundararajan. (1980). J. mar. biaL Ass. India, 22 (1 & 2) : 175. P. S. B. R James & Lai Mohan (1987). Mar. Fish. Infor. Serv., T & E Ser., No. 71 : 1-16. Male K. Venkataramanujam et al, (1988). Inv. Cetacea, 21 : 247-249. Female H. Mohamed Kasim & T. S. Balasubramanian (1989). Mar. Fish. Infor. Serv., T&ESer., No. 95 : 12-14. Anon. (1988). CMFRI News Letter, No. 40 : 5. Female Anon. (1988). CMFRI News Letter, No. 41 : 6. Female Present report 19 

On the stranding of sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis Lesson at Mandapam along the Palk Bay coast

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On the stranding of sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis Lesson at Mandapam along the Palk Bay coast

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