Blood on the beach
for decades I searched for them in vain. Finally, I found one, but not the way I would have preferred it. Lying on the shore of a coastal Gujarat village, barely alive, was the whale shark ( Rhincodon typus ) I had chased for most of my life. Fisherfolk were busy butchering the leviathan. The thrill of discovery turned into anguish as I stood on the shore and watched the fisherfolk systematically strip the flesh off the fish.
I had gone back to the Gujarat coast to relive a childhood memory. As a 10 year old boy, I was mesmerised by the huge sea creatures that kept alongside my ship as I sailed from Africa to India. The memory of that journey urged me to make a film on these amazing creatures of the Arabian Sea.
Hundreds of whale sharks are being killed along the western coast of India each year. These beasts are the largest of all shark species and are found mostly in warm tropical and subtropical waters.
Many weigh up to 70 tonnes and can be 20 metres long, though most of them measure about 12 to 15 metre. They are greyish brown in colour with white spots that act as camouflage. They are harmless