Carisa Lee
Corporate Secretary of Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), Gary Aboud, is calling on all relevant authorities to mandate a full necropsy of the whale shark found near the Chaquacabana Hotel in Chaguaramas to determine its cause of death.
The gentle giant was first spotted alive on Saturday morning at Peake Yacht Services Marina. Eyewitnesses told Guardian Media the animal lingered in the area for about 30 minutes before swimming away.
“When I turned around, I saw a big, big, big whale. I was like, I have to capture this moment. And I won’t lie, it was one of the greatest moments in the short space of time I’ve been living on earth,” said Leslieann Sambrano of Peake Yacht Services.
The whale shark was later discovered dead on Wednesday morning, roughly 0.4 to 0.5 miles from where it was first seen. According to FFOS, it had a visible wound on its back and was observed swimming in distress before its death.
Aboud is now urging the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, the Ministry of Planning and the Environment, and other stakeholders to investigate whether the animal died from a vessel strike, plastic ingestion, hydrocarbon contamination, or another preventable cause.
“Without this knowledge, we cannot protect what remains of our marine biodiversity. We must do better. Our silence and inaction are deadly,” he said.
Guardian Media understands that the Trinidad and Tobago Marine Mammal Stranding Network will manage the carcass.
