A whale shark which landed in the Ashtamudi backwaters and was towed by fishermen towards Kavanadu at Meenatucherry in Kollam on Monday died at night, and the carcass was transported to the Punnala forest region for necropsy on Tuesday. The whale shark is included in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act. Capturing and killing the fish is a cognisable offence. 

The forest department officials from Punnala forest station, Kadassery, said that the necropsy of the whale shark will be conducted at Punnala, and burial will be held in the forest region. The carcass was lifted using a crane and loaded onto a truck in the morning.

The officials said there were recent instances where whale sharks were spotted off the Kollam beach, but sharks swimming towards the backwaters were rare. It is learnt that fishermen spotted the whale shark nearing the backwaters, and they tied it and towed it towards the shore. The massive whale shark drew a lot of crowds from nearby areas on Monday. "The whale shark was found to be extremely weak. It died somewhere around night. It weighs around 2 tons," a forest official said. 

Repository of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute shows that a whale shark got entrapped in a trawl net while fishing off Kollam in 2006 and was brought to Sakthikulangara fisheries harbour. The male shark measured 445 cm in length and weighed 2 tons. In 2010, a whale shark landed at Neendakara Fisheries Harbour in Kollam. The shark was caught in hooks and line off Chavara. The specimen landed was a juvenile female shark weighing around 450 kg.