The appearances of bodies of marine creatures, while continue to baffle marine experts and environmental activists, they seem to have missed bringing the attention of the Maharashtra government to the matter.
The death toll of marine mammals in the waters surrounding Mumbai continues to rise - the count now 14 - the latest incident involving a three-feet-long carcass of a finless porpoise found near the Haji Ali seaface, in wee hours of Thursday morning.
Local fishermen spotted the skin-peeled, fluid oozing, bloated body of the porpoise washed on the rocky shoreline of the city, at around 6am. They claimed that, two rag-pickers dragged the carcass, weighing around 50 kilos, and dumped it on the parapet wall along the seaface.
It took Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) team around six hours to reach the site and remove the carcass, which was emanating foul stench.
According to a senior Forest department official, the species, which was identified as the rare - finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides), found in the temperate waters of the southern Asia.
"These are rare species of porpoises which are seen from the Persian Gulf to the South China sea. They have been spotted in pods in deeper waters along the western coastline of India from Gujarat to Kerala," the officer told iamin.
He further explained, "This is an inshore small porpoise species, which is found both in sea and fresh waters. It lacks a dorsal fin which is replaced by a ridge with small bumps which runs down the middle of the back. The head is rounded and there is no apparent beak. The colour is uniformly dark- to pale grey and somewhat lighter on the ventral side. Body size reaches 170 cm and mass 70 kilos, with maximum of 200 cm and 100 kilos."
While hunted in Japan - the finless porpoise - is one of the protected marine mammals in Indian waters. A senior marine biologist from the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) said that the species has been known to migrate with seasonal movements between the Persian Gulf and the Pacific coast of Japan. "However, this is the first-time, am hearing one of it washing ashore in Mumbai," he added.
BMC learns from its mistake, hands carcass to forest dept
Unlike the incident last week, where BMC burned a carcass of a five-feet-long dolphin washed up at Malabar Hill, this time the civic body followed the instructions set by the state environment ministry.
A team from G-South ward, collected physical information - size, length and weight of the mammal, before waiting for the forest department to arrive at the location.
Speaking to iamin, Assistant Engineer (Solid Waste Management) G-South ward said, "The carcass was removed after the forest department team arrived on the scene. They have taken it for a medical examination at the BSPCA hospital in Lower Parel to determine the cause of the death."
14th marine mammal so far
The unexplained death toll of near-extinction and protected marine mammals in waters of the Arabian sea continues to rise - with the finless porpoise found today, becoming the 14th body so far.
The last carcass was found near Malabar Hill of a five-feet-long dolphin on November 27. Carcasses of species like the Blue Whale, Humpback Whale, Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin, Porpoises along with bodies of sea turtles have been beaching on the coastlines in and around the island city, in the past ten months.
The appearances of bodies of marine creatures, while continue to baffle marine experts and environmental activists, they seem to have missed bringing the attention of the Maharashtra government to the matter.
Environment minister Ramdas Kadam, who at the last incident, claimed to have no information of any dolphin carcass washing ashore, remained unavailable to comment on Thursday's appearance.
This article was first published on iamin.in. For more such hyperlocal stories, visit their website.
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 "Dolphin washed up on shoreline of Haji Ali")
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