Whale necropsy reveals intestinal obstruction

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - Researchers say a whale that died in the Elizabeth River had ingested a piece of plastic that perhaps prevented it from eating.

A necropsy performed Friday also found a large hematoma suggesting the 45-foot juvenile female sei whale might have been hit by a ship shortly before dying the previous day.

Sue Barco, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center's stranding response coordinator, said the rigid piece of plastic measuring about 3 inches by 5 inches was stuck in the whale's stomach chamber and could not pass into its intestines. The whale was thin, and no food was found in its stomach.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that Barco also noticed the hematoma.

Tissue and blood samples might yield more information. The whale will be buried on Craney Island.

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Rare whale strands on St Kilda

Sowerby's beaked whale and calf strand on remote Scottish Island

September 2013. Conservation charity, the National Trust for Scotland, has reported that a rarely-seen Sowerby's beaked whale and calf became stranded in the shallow waters of Village Bay, Hirta (St Kilda) last week. 

Sad end

The 5m long adult female and 1.5m long calf were seen in distress just before 11am on Thursday 12 September. Staff from the National Trust for Scotland and QinetiQ immediately attempted to refloat the animals but, despite their quick response and strenuous efforts, were unable to successfully move the mother before it passed away. The calf freed itself without assistance and was last seen swimming out to open water. It is, however, unlikely to survive without its mother, which was still lactating.

Sowerby's beaked whale

The Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens) is a rarely-seen whale about which very little is known. It is small (about 5m long) with males slightly larger than females, they have a rounded melon (forehead), and slender long beak. Only the adult males have erupted teeth or tusks in this species half way along the lower jaw. The female's teeth do not erupt.

Continued

Pilot whale strands in Falmouth

Long-finned pilot whale on a beach near Falmouth. Courtesy of British Divers Marine Life Rescue

Whale too ill to survive

April 2013. At 11am on 15th April, British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) received a call from the Cornwall Coastguard telling alerting them that a dolphin had stranded on the beach at Falmouth. They scrambled their marine mammal medics they arrived on the scene within half an hour to discover that the dolphin was actually a Long-finned Pilot whale.

The medics immediately started to administer first aid to the whale, and to protect the whale from the sun (which dries out and cracks its skin) the medics placed towels drenched in water over the whale.

BDMLR maintain a whale rescue trailer which arrived shortly after towed by BDMLR director Dave Jarvis. The whale was 4.1 metres long and probably a juvenile. The whale was also solitary which was unusual as they live in large pods - This was a worry to the rescue team as Long-finned pilot whales are known to strand en masse - As happened in Scotland last September - But as yet there is no sign of any more whales in the area.

Poor condition
On assessment the body condition was found to be poor and a decision was taken to euthanize the whale. BDMLR main aim is to prevent suffering and to return a whale to the sea that is not in a condition to survive would simply increase the suffering of the whale.

COURTESY OF BRITISH DIVERS MARINE LIFE RESCUE.

Dave Jarvis said "It's always a hard decision to end a life but in this case I feel it was justified."

A full post mortem will be carried out on the whale to determine the reason it came ashore.

Long-finned pilot whales

Long-finned pilot whales occur in the North Atlantic and across the southern hemisphere at lower latitudes. Adults can grow up to 7 metres long and can weigh up to 3 tonnes.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/pilot-falmouth.html

Fin whale beached in Dorset

November 2012. Steve Trewhella, of UK Coastal Wildlife, has sent us these images of a beached whale in Dorset. The whale washed up at the beginning of November at the bottom of the sea cliffs near Kimmeridge.

Juvenile Fin whale
It is thought that the whale is a juvenile Fin whale, though this has not been verified. The whale measured some 13.5 metres long, and is decaying rapidly.

Can live for 90 years

Fin whales can grow up to around 25 metres long, with the average at around 20 metres, and a female whale can weigh up to 120,000 kg, making them the second largest whale after the mighty Blue. Remarkably, they can live for up to 90 years. Although they are inaudible to the human ear, the whales' low frequency calls can be heard by other whales some 850 kilometres away.

Fin whales are seen most winters off Cornwall
Since the 1990s they have been seen during most winters off the coast of Cornwall and other parts of south-west England. Their vertical blows are easily visible from some two miles away without binoculars, and they may stay close to the surface for about a minute and a half minutes each time they surface. They then dive to depths of up to 250 metres, although they are also known to enter shallow water, and each dive can last between 10 and 15 minutes. They have a varied diet of fish and squid, but may also eat krill and copepods. With their huge mouths, which make up about 25% of their body length, they can take in up to 70 cubic meters of water in one gulp.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/dorset-fin.html

World's Rarest Whale Seen for the First Time

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2012) — A whale that is almost unknown to science has been seen for the first time after two individuals -- a mother and her male calf -- were stranded and died on a New Zealand beach. A report in the November 6th issue of Current Biology offers the first complete description of the spade-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon traversii), a species previously known only from a few bones.

The discovery is the first evidence that this whale is still with us and serves as a reminder of just how little we still know about life in the ocean, the researchers say. The findings also highlight the importance of DNA typing and reference collections for the identification of rare species.

"This is the first time this species -- a whale over five meters in length -- has ever been seen as a complete specimen, and we were lucky enough to find two of them," says Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland. "Up until now, all we have known about the spade-toothed beaked whale was from three partial skulls collected from New Zealand and Chile over a 140-year period. It is remarkable that we know almost nothing about such a large mammal."

 Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121105130353.htm

65 Pilot whales die after stranding in New Zealand

Stranded whales on Farewell Spit now dead
November 2011. Pilot whales stranded at the tip of Farewell Spit were unable to save themselves and are now all dead.

Department of Conservation Golden Bay Area Manager John Mason said 16 whales had died and DOC staff had taken the difficult decision to euthanize the remaining 18 whales to end their suffering.

'We had wanted to give the whales a chance to refloat and hopefully find their way out to sea in the high tides yesterday and overnight. But they re-stranded each time and more whales died. The whales seem to have come in a little further inshore in each re-stranding. The tides are reducing so it became very unlikely the remaining whales would get out to sea and that they would survive.

"Rather than prolong the whales' suffering we decided to take the humane course of euthanizing the remaining 18 whales this morning.'

65 whales
The stranded pilot whales were reported to NZ Department of Conservation (DOC) staff by a Farewell Spit tour guide. DOC rangers who went to the area found 20 dead whales and one whale in a poor condition was euthanized. The next morning the rangers found another 44 whales stranded nearby, 2 - 3 kilometres from shore, 34 of which were alive and 10 dead.

A rescue of the whales was too dangerous to undertake given the distance of the whales from shore in a remote location where tides come in rapidly over the shallow tidal flats. It would be arduous and unsafe for people to walk the 2 - 3 kilometres back to shore after refloating the whales in chest-deep water.

DOC rangers remained at the Spit and overnight to monitor the whales. They found another 10 whales had died when the high tide receded. A further six whales were found dead when rangers checked again at first light.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/pilot-strand.html