By Extinction Protocol: 2012 Earthchanges and News Event (Reporter)
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U.S. scientists probe beaching that killed 17 whales
Sunday, September 2, 2012 16:20
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September 2, 2012 – FLORIDA – U.S. scientists are to investigate what led 22 whales to beach themselves in Florida—killing 17 of them—one of three such incidents in North America over the weekend. The dead whales will be “dispersed at different labs across Florida for necropsy,” or animal autopsies, Blair Mase, regional stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told AFP on Sunday. Only five of the 22 pilot whales survived after beaching themselves Saturday morning at Avalon Beach State Park, on the east coast of Florida, despite efforts by volunteers and experts to save the group. So far, it is unclear why the whales swam ashore. Mase said experts would collect data to try to find out why the whales stranded themselves. The survivors, four juveniles and one calf, are “stable” and “swimming on their own,” Mase said. They are currently at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and will likely be transported later to SeaWorld in Orlando. However, two other groups of whales swam onto beaches in North America—one in Cape Cod on Saturday and another in Canada on Sunday—an occurrence that Mase said merited further investigation. “It’s very interesting that we’re seeing all these mass strandings occur in North America right now,” she added. Pilot whales are tightly knit and sometimes swim on to beaches as a group when one of them is ill. In those cases, Mase told local media, it does not help to push the whales back into the water, because they tend to quickly swim back to shore again. –Physics
16 whales die off Scotland coast: A total of 16 whales have died after being stranded on the east coast of Scotland. Ten others were refloated after being kept alive by vets from British Divers and Marine Life Rescue. The incident between Anstruther and Pittenweem in Fife involved pilot whales, each of them approximately 20ft (6m) long. The whales which survived will be monitored for the next 24 hours to see if they re-beach. Forth coastguard were alerted to the incident at about 07:00 BST on Sunday. Three of the whales which died were calves. The incident drew a large number of bystanders to the scene, prompting the coastguard to urge the public to stay away to allow rescue teams to carry out their duties. Coastguard teams from St Andrews and Leven, Anstruther lifeboat, and Fife Police assisted with the incident. A further 24 pilot whales, thought to be from the same pod, were spotted in shallow water about three miles away at Cellardyke. They have been monitored for signs that they are in danger of stranding. –BBC
contribution Barca
2012-09-02 16:14:56
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The answer to the mystery of why whales beach themselves can stated in only one word: BAROSINUSITIS
Barosinusitis in diving sea mammals is a pressure-related injury in the sinuses and air sacs located inside their heads.
It is well-known that rapid and excessive changes in the surrounding water pressure can cause physical trauma in all diving mammals, including man.
Severe oscillations in pressure are common above the epicenter of certain shallow-focused undersea earthquakes, especially those located in the rift valley of mid-ocean ridges. Scientists called these seismoacoustic waves seaquakes until the 1950s when the name was changed to T-Phase Waves.
But not all earthquakes generate whale-dangerous seaquakes. Only events that occur in specific places and in a specific manner are harmful to diving whales and dolphins.
Navy sonar, oil industry airguns, and underwater explosives also induce rapid and excessive changes in pressures surrounding the diving whales and dolphins. These man-made devices cause the exact same barosinusitis injury as caused by seismoacoustic waves generated by undersea earthquakes.
In toothed whales, the sinuses and air sacs serve as acoustic mirrors reflecting sound inside their heads in such a fashion to enable their echo-navigation system to function properly. An injury in this critical part of their biosonar system naturally disrupts echo-navigation, causing the animals to lose their normally excellent sense of direction. It also prevents them from diving and feeding themselves.
Lost at sea, the flow of the surface currents direct the injured whales/dolphins downstream from the point of injury. This control over the swim path of the injured sea mammals happens because water is 700 times denser than air. The increased density induces a powerful drag (resistance) to swimming in any direction except downstream with the flow. Thus, surface currents quickly point lost whales and dolphins headfirst into the path of least resistance or least drag.
The whales/dolphins will recover from a slight barotraumatic injury within a week or so. On the other hand, surface currents are likely to deposit those that do not recover on a sandy beach because current just happens to be the same energy that carries each grain of sand to build the beach in the first place. In general, whales/dolphins are directed to beaches that are building sand; not to beaches that are eroding.
Hungry sharks sense the whales/dolphins are in trouble. They move in close and wait for an opportunity to snatch any weakened pod member that falls behind.
Unable to navigate or dive and terrified by the pack of starving predators trailing them, the wounded whales/dolphins huddle together in a tight group for protection against sharks and killer whales. They swim downstream with the flow of the surface currents. The idea that individuals will follow a pod leader to the beach, or be drawn in by the distress calls of a beached member out of some sort of strong social bond is an over-glamorized false concept. Rather, individuals are highly-stressed and have no idea which way to swim to safety. They will follow any whale that ventures out in hopes that this individual knows the way to open water. They abide by a herd instinct, remaining close to their pod mates because they are in dreadful fear of becoming the next shark attack victim if they swim away from the herd. It appears as if the Pod has close social ties but in fact the action of each individual is focused on self preservation.
Said differently, it is the whale with the least fear that appears to human observers as a pod leader when in fact this individual is just as lost and confused as the rest of the pod.
Land masses that extend out to sea opposing the flow of the surface currents, serve to trap sand, flotsam, seaweed, and lost sea mammals swimming with the flow. Cape Cod is the best example of such a natural trap in the United States. Cape Sorrel in Tasmania and Golden Bay in New Zealand are also natural traps for non-navigating whales/dolphins.
The reason for the increased strandings in Cape Cod during the 2011/2012 stranding season was the drastic increase in oil survey activity off the coast of Canada and West Greenland.
Normally the dolphins swim away from the oil survey boats long before they are injured; however, the rocky coast of northeast Canada and western Greenland consist mainly of one small cove after the next. The dolphins dart into these coves to avoid the loud booms. The survey vessel blocks their escape route when it tows the airguns along the openings of the coves.
The survey crews could prevent these deaths if they would simply reduce the volume of air supplied to the airguns as they cross the mouth of the coves.
I do not advocate the halt of oil exploration; however, I only ask that the oil industry and the US Navy stop denying the existence of barosinusitis and start listening to ways to prevent it. We can solve the problem by owning up to the truth and using simple precautions in the operations of oil survey vessels and sonar ships.
The reason the Navy and the oil industry will not admit barotrauma involves the numerous “best available scientific information” clauses in the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. This law mandates that our governments protect marine mammals to the limits of the “best available scientific information.”
However, the control over developing “best available scientific information” is now solely in the hands of the US Navy and the oil industry since these two organizations fund 98% of all marina mammal research worldwide.
It’s like putting the tobacco industry in charge of lung cancer research.
The Navy and oil industry are not going to fund a study into barosinusitis since they are afraid they will shoot themselves in the foot. Instead, they fund research that covers up barotrauma in whales/dolphins.
As long as they can muddy the waters on the “best available scientific information,” they can skirt around the laws and do as they please. On the other hand, if they would fund research on preventing barotrauma and barosinusitis in marine mammals, simple procedures could be put in place that would allow the oil industry to extract offshore oil and the Navy to practice using sonar and still save the lives of the thousands of whales and dolphins that are killed every month.
Capt. David Williams, Chairman
Deafwhale Society, Inc.
http://www.deafwhale.com
(a 501-c non-profit whale research corporation devoted solely
to understanding why marine mammals beach themselves.)