Lessons from a dead whale

Fisherman vows to keep sea clean and save its creatures

PONTIAN: A fisherman has made his mission to keep the sea clean of garbage after an encounter with a beached whale three years ago.

Ismail Sirat (pic) said he still remembers the day he rescued a stranded Sei whale, which subsequently died after ingesting pieces of plastic.

The father of six said the Sei whale was stranded about 100m away from Pantai Rambah in February 2016.

“My friends kept calling me on my mobile phone saying there was a whale stranded and I decided to have a look.

“I thought they were joking.

“When I arrived at Pantai Rambah, I saw the whale moving its tail up and down but nobody helped although there was a large crowd there,” he said when met at the Sungai Rambah jetty here yesterday.

The father of six, who has been a fisherman for three decades, said he went straight to his boat and took it out to rescue the whale with the help of his friends.

He said the water was shallow and he knew the whale was not in a good condition as it kept making sounds and moving its tail up and down.

Ismail said a rope was tied around the whale’s tail before it was pulled out to deeper waters.

“After a few hours of pulling its tail, the whale was able to swim on its own and I released it,” he said.

However, his joy was short-lived after her learnt that the whale died a few days later at Sungai Sarang Buaya in Batu Pahat.

The 12m-long male Sei whale, weighing 15 tonnes, died due to badly damaged internal organs as well as a parasite found in its carcass.

The Johor Fisheries Department conducted a post-mortem and discovered small pieces of plastic garbage that had already decayed.

Ismail now picks up garbage whenever he goes out to sea hoping to save more marine life, as his livelihood depends on the sea.

“After a thunderstorm or heavy rain, the garbage I collected can be as big as a football. The sea here is part of major shipping routes.

“I am doing a small part and hope to see another whale in Pontian waters again as the creatures are beautiful,” he said.