The whales were young bulls
around the same age as 12 other sperm whales found dead in recent weeks at
various North Sea spots
By AFP
12:34PM GMT 02 Feb 2016
Eight dead sperm whales have
washed up on a German beach, just weeks after 12 of the giant mammals were
found dead at other sites on the North Sea, officials said on Monday.
The eight whales found near the
northern town of Friedrichskoog were young bulls, around the same age as
the animals discovered three weeks ago at various North Sea spots.
They were lying close to each
other in the mudflats of a restricted area of the Wadden Sea national park, the
Schleswig-Holstein regional environmental authority said in a statement.
Since the 1990s, a total of 82
sperm wales have been found stranded in the Wadden Sea in Denmark, the
Netherlands and Germany.
The sperm whale is the largest of
the toothed whales, and the largest toothed predator.
It can measure up to 67 feet (20 metres)
long and weigh over 50 tonnes.
"The males of this
population spend their winters in the north Atlantic," the authority said.
"During their migrations,
individual animals mistakenly wind up in the shallow and nutrient-poor North
Sea."
The shallow water makes it difficult for them to use their
acoustic orientation to navigate and many become beached.
Wildlife protection groups also
blame the underwater noise from sea traffic and oil platforms for interfering
with acoustic signals.
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