Puducherry: Whale shark dies after getting trapped in fishing net, buried

An 18-foot-long whale shark that died after getting trapped in a fishing net off the Puducherry coast was towed to the shore and buried near the fishing harbour here on Friday.

Some fishermen from Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore district had anchored their boat some 12 nautical miles off the Puducherry coast when they felt a pull in the net and realised that they had a big catch. During their efforts to drag the net they found it was a whale shark, officials of the Department of Forests of Puducherry government said.

The fishermen tried to cut the wire but to no avail and the whale shark died before being brought to the shore, they said.

A team of veterinarians conducted a post-mortem and got the whale shark buried on the shore close to the harbour, the officials said.

Internal bleeding in the shark's stomach caused its death, they added.