With no effective measures to protect marine mammals, dead whales and dolphins are turning up one after another on Bangladesh's southern coast and river banks. Most recently a dead Ganges river dolphin was found in the Bishkhali river in Barguna last Sunday, and on 9 September a 30-foot dead whale washed ashore on the Andharmanik river. Some of the carcasses bear wounds; others have fishing nets tangled around the mouth or body.

Mir Mohammad Ali, a teacher and researcher at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, said the latest whale was a baleen species, which filters krill and plankton from the water. A succession of whale carcasses on the southern coast is alarming for the marine ecosystem, he said, and scientific examination is needed to establish the causes of death.

Data from WorldFish's ECOFISH project show 135 dead dolphins washed up on Kuakata beach alone in the eight years from 2018 to September 2025. The volunteer Kuakata Dolphin Protection Committee counts 16 dead dolphins from January to 5 September this year, plus the carcasses of four whales about 60 feet long. The Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute records more than 14 dead dolphins and one whale on the Cox's Bazar coast in the past two years.

Mohammad Abdul Aziz, professor at Jahangirnagar University and a dolphin researcher, said the estuaries of the Bishkhali, Payra and Baleshwar are key habitat for Ganges river dolphins and Irrawaddy dolphins — an area his team identified as a 'hotspot' some years ago — but the widespread use of illegal small-mesh nets has put it at risk. Bangladesh holds about 85 per cent of the world's Irrawaddy dolphins: 451 in the Sundarbans and 5,380 along the coast. A 2006 Wildlife Conservation Society survey counted 5,800, the largest population anywhere.

The Ganges river dolphin is an indicator of river health. Seen in most of the country's rivers until the 1990s, it is now largely confined to the Sundarbans and nearby waterways; a 2024 survey by Jahangirnagar University and Forest Department specialists found it in only 14 rivers. The IUCN lists the species as endangered. Bangladesh has nine dolphin sanctuaries, five of them in the Sundarbans.

Under the amended Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act 2026, killing a dolphin or whale carries up to three years in prison, a fine of up to Tk 300,000, or both. Rathindra Kumar Biswas of the Forest Department's wildlife crime control unit said the new law fixes weaknesses in the old one and brings customs, police, the BGB and the coast guard into enforcement alongside the Forest Department; staff are short, he said, but they are doing what they can.

Source: Prothom Alo