Dear Marc and all,
Of course we are sad to hear about this
recent stranding. It is also unfortunate that you didn't have the resources to
perform necropsies on the animals while they were still fresh to establish
possible causes. If the animals were otherwise healthy in terms of body fat
and physical vitality, I would not exclude acoustical trauma as a possible
cause.
You mentioned that there were no military
operations in the area coincident to the strandings. In cases like these we look
to see if there are any unusual acoustical sources within 200 miles and 24
hours of the event, under the assumption that an acoustically compromised
beaked whale can travel 200 miles in 24 hours if they are looking for a place
to strand.
Michael Stocker
www.OCR.org
From:
marmam-bounces@lists.uvic.ca [mailto:marmam-bounces@lists.uvic.ca] On Behalf Of marc fernandez
Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009
To: panigada@inwind.it;
marmam@lists.uvic.ca
Subject: [MARMAM] Six Beaked
Whales stranded in
Dear Colleagues,
I want to report an unusual situation occurred during the last week and a half
in São Miguel island,
During the last two weeks a total of 6 beaked
whales stranded on this small island, a really unusual fact. Of
these 6 two were dead and 4 stranded alive and
returned to the open sea. From the first two animals (the dead ones) we only
can get one identification and it was a Cuvier's Beaked Whale, probably an
immature male. The other four animals stranded on a beach and they were
returned to the sea immediately by the lifeguards and the coastal guard, for
these reason we don't have a lot of information, but for the pictures they send
us probably were Sowerby's Beaked Whales, we only now that they stranded alive
and probably they were immature animals also, due to the body lenght (about 3.5
meters).
We don't have any notice about military activities in the area, but is really
difficult to get this kind of information, for this reason i want to ask you
for help to find if there is any military or seismic prospection on the area
that could affect these animals.
Thanks for your help.
All the best,
Marc Fernandez Morron
Universidade dos Açores