- Undiagnosed Die Off, Whales, California
-
- Source: Los Angeles Times
- http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-me-whale21sep21,1,
- 1764909.story?coll=la-news-science&ctrack=7&cset=true
- (registration required)
-
-
- Whale expected to wash ashore today in Ventura County,
the 2nd there in a week
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- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Another dead blue whale was floating toward shore Thursday
[20 Sep 2007] in the Santa Barbara Channel, as puzzled experts try to determine
why at least 3 of the huge mammals have died off the Southern California
coast in less than 2 weeks.
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- Tracked by government aircraft, the 60 foot (18 metres)
blue whale -- a member of the largest species on Earth -- was drifting
toward the Ventura County coast and was expected to wash ashore sometime
today. Scientists said they didn't know where it would land. Last week
[10-14 Sep 20-07], a dead blue whale beached about 10 miles up the coast
from Ventura and another was found in Long Beach Harbor before being towed
out to sea.
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- Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist with the National Marine
Fisheries Service, said he couldn't recall a similar spate of blue whale
deaths off California or anywhere else. "There's something a little
different going on right now," he said, "and we don't know what
it is."
-
- The latest blue whale was spotted Wednesday afternoon
[19 Sep 2007] by Derek Lee, a vacationing marine biologist who was sailing
to Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard after a few days off Santa Cruz Island.
"We got 50 feet away from it, took pictures and rounded it twice,"
said Lee, who works in Northern California's Farallon National Wildlife
Refuge. "It was floating belly up, freshly dead and intact."
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- Lee phoned Cordaro, who alerted scientists in the region's
Marine Mammal Stranding Network, a group of experts from marine institutes,
government agencies and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. After
the whale beaches today, biologists will begin the elaborate process of
determining a cause of death. The whale that washed ashore last week had
numerous broken bones, suggesting it was hit by a ship in one of the Santa
Barbara Channel's busy shipping lanes.
- [byline: Steve Chawkins <steve.chawkins@latimes.com]
-
- --
- communicated by:
- ProMED-mail
- <promed@promedmail.org
-
- [Although one of these delightful creatures may have
been hit by a ship, it is unlikely that all 3 suffered the same fate. Just
as we have had some rather unusual weather patterns on land this year,
that likely also affects the oceans.
-
- It seems unlikely the cause of the problem would be domoic
acid or toxic algaes since we currently have no reports of other species
being affected. And without more information it is difficult to speculate.
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- We hope there will be more informative information when
the necropsy and testing have been completed.
-
- - Mod.TG]
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
-
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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