Rough whale weighs 2 tons and catches fishermen's nets

At the bottom of fishing catch near the mouth of the sea, the nets of Ca Mau fishermen with elephant shark (included in the red book) weigh about 2 tons. Once the boat is pulled in, the fish will die.

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On August 4, hundreds of fishermen pulled to the seaport near Hon Da Bac to join local authorities in Khanh Binh Tay commune, Tran Van Thoi district (Ca Mau) to bury elephant whale weighing about 2 tons.

Fish with a belly circumference of about 4m, 5,7m long sticking to the bottom of the sea fishing fishermen Nguyen Van Hau close near Da Bac estuary on August 3 afternoon. The fish body is very large, the head is flat, the back has a ledge running from the first to the first dorsal fin. In addition, the back and hips of the fish are brown with many white dots distributed throughout the body, the head has small white dots distributed thickly.

Fish in the red book weighs 2 tons and die after getting entangled
into the bottom net of Ca Mau fishermen.Photo: K. Ngu.

Mr. Hau said that when he pulled the bottom to the fish area, it was so fierce that he sent a message to dozens of colleagues to run the net to support pulling inland. In the evening of the same day, this giant fish was pulled ashore. A hundred people in the area pulled together to see. About half an hour later, people found dead fish, blood flowed so much that the two sides should find a plan to find the land next to the protective forest cover to bury fish on August 4.

According to the Ca Mau Department of Aquatic Resources Exploitation and Protection, this fish belongs to the shark family, whose scientific name is Rhincodon typus Smith ( Whale Shark in English). The main food of this fish is zooplankton, squid and some small fish. Rough whales live in the high seas in the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean but often swim to the shore for food.

In Vietnam, whale shark usually occurs in the East Sea, the Gulf of Tonkin and the Southwest Sea. This fish is a valuable genetic resource to be protected, so it has been included in the Vietnam Red Book, which is on the list of very endangered species.