Watch: Fishermen spot rare Arabian humpback whales near Pasni

• Rare species of humpback whales were spotted near Pasni, Balochistan
• Fishermen spotted the whales cheerfully playing in the water while they were carrying out a fishing operation
• WWF says the Arabian humpback whales are mostly found in the waters of Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Pakistan, and India

PASNI: Fishermen along the coast of Pasni in Balochistan spotted a pair of humpback whales frolicking in the middle of the sea while they were busy catching fish. 

The rare species, known as the Arabian humpback whale, is mostly found in the waters of Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Iran, Pakistan and India, and possibly the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

According to the report, an adult humpback whale weighs about 30,000 kg. An adult female is about 15 to 16 meters long, while a male is about 13 to 14 meters long. 

"Arabian humpback whales, like other similar species, feed on shrimp-like crustaceans (krill) and small fish, straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates that act like a sieve," the report said, adding that they travel towards warmer waters for reproduction. 

WWF-Pakistan’s Technical Advisor Marine Fisheries Muhammad Moazzam Khan told Geo News that his organisation has had over 200 sightings of the whale in the last four years.

Read more: WWF team spots two large pods of dolphins in Pakistani waters

“Arabian humpback whales, inhabiting the Arabian Sea, are a small subpopulation of the humpback whales, which are most genetically distinct humpback whales and are considered to be the most isolated whale population on Earth,” the WWF states on its website.

The conservation group said that a population estimation study suggests that they have remained separate from other humpback whale populations for about 70,000 years. It further noted that the separation is “extremely unusual in a species famed for long-distance migrations”.