Sabbir Hossain

The Bay of Bengal, with its vast blue waters and rich biodiversity, seems to be losing its familiar normality. One of its deepest and most mysterious areas, the Swatch of No Ground, is under threat. Lying south of the Sundarbans, this canyon, described as the second deepest in the world, has long been known as a safe sanctuary for whales and dolphins. Yet the lifeless bodies of marine animals washing ashore along the coast have recently caused unease.

Soon after a series of dolphin carcasses washed up on Kuakata beach, a dead whale weighing about 30 kg was found on the beach at Patharghata in Barguna. A whale, which does not live in shallow water, reaching the shore at Patharghata is no ordinary event.

The place where the whale was found is only about 45 km from the Swatch of No Ground. Marine specialists believe the animal died in the deep canyon and was later carried by the tide until it was stranded on the beach.

What caused the death? Marine scientists say a few main factors usually lie behind unusual whale deaths: food shortage, swallowing plastic waste mistaken for food, severe pollution of seawater, underwater noise and collisions with large ships. But commercial shipping over the Swatch of No Ground is very limited, so if collision is ruled out, the remaining causes point to a grim picture of the Bay of Bengal's seabed.

There is much debate about whether some environmental disaster is taking place on the seabed. There are global crises such as rising temperatures in the Bay of Bengal due to climate change and the breakdown of the food chain, and uncontrolled waste from coastal areas is also damaging the purity of the Swatch of No Ground.

Such a sad change in the Bay of Bengal is an ill omen not only for the environment but also for the people of coastal Bangladesh. The deaths of these large marine animals are in fact an early signal that the sea's ecosystem is breaking down.

Now is the time to uncover the real causes of dolphin and whale deaths through scientific research. Rather than simply expressing anger, effective steps must be taken urgently to protect the Bay of Bengal and its sanctuary; otherwise the sea's cry will one day crash onto the shoreline as a great disaster.

The writer is a student at Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrasa, Tongi.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.