The most recent radio show on the Earth & Sky website today is about “live strandings,” or what happens when large marine mammals get stuck up waterways or on beaches. With the two lost and injured humpback whales still milling around the Sacramento River after two weeks of scientists trying to push them towards the ocean, it’s clear that there’s no “tried and true” method to getting a whale back on track.
According to Dr. Brandon Southall, director of NOAA’s Marine Acoustics Program, whale strandings are not a new phenomenon. “We know that marine mammal strandings have been happening for thousands of years,” Southall told me. “It was first observed by the ancient Greeks, and there’s records of whale strandings in Massachusetts, shortly after the Pilgrims came. So it’s been going on for a long time.”
But it’s only been within the past couple decades that organizations have formed to rescue and rehabilitate marine mammals, and live strandings have begun getting more attention.
It’s hard to tell if strandings have increased with more human activity in the ocean, although red tide (a harmful chemical algae bloom) and human sound have been blamed for an increase in animals that wash up dead on the shore. And it’s also difficult to know why strandings occur in the first place. Southall said a potential cause may be strong weather events, in which whales get disoriented or get blown into unfamiliar water. And there are areas that are prone to strandings, such as Cape Cod, where the currents, tides, and unusual ocean bottom often conspire to trap unsuspecting whales.
“The overarching theme is there’s a variety of things that can cause marine mammals to come into shallow areas or strand on the beach,” said Southall. “And we can’t always pinpoint exactly what it was that resulted in them coming there, and we don’t always know the best way to get them out, or to dissuade them from coming back up onto the beach.”
Sometimes it seems despite humans’ best intentions, animals still have a mind of their own.
Let’s hope they continue to have the chance to remain wild, free and have a mind of their own.
Another thing that factors in to the human influence of whale populations is the increased ship traffic and fishing pressure.
Not to mention oil drilling pressure.
I’ll be happy as long as they get back to their home, the sea.
What happens to whales that die stranded? Are their bodies used by researchers?
Great question, Gherkin.
Some of the animals from live strandings get rehabilitated and released back into the ocean, and others end up at happy places like Sea World. Some die soon after they’re rescued. (I can’t re-locate the site where I found this information when I researched this story, but it listed years of rescued animals and their fates.)
And in answer to your query, in some cases their bodies are used to study diseases or toxins that may have caused their stranding. It’s called biomonitoring.
Poor whales, why can’t it always be happy like free Willy, too bad that’s not real life. Hopefully now enough people know about it so we can make a difference and save the stranded whales in time.