Six sperm whales washed up on shores of British beaches in the past two weeks while another 23 remained stranded in Germany, France and Holland. Experts claimed that the sperm whales found on British coast lines ventured into shallow waters as they hunted for squid and died.
There are other theories surrounding the mysterious deaths which include the lack of food in the North Sea and migration-based navigational errors. There were also speculations that boats' sonar systems could have caused the sperm whales to get confused.
Notably, sperm whales breathe once every eight minutes, but the latest death of a young bull whale revealed that the animal was breathing every 10 to 20 seconds. The rate is similar to a human's breathing when suffering from an extreme form of panic attack.
"We've now had 30 animals stranded around the southern part of the North Sea - making it the biggest we've ever had," said Sea Watch Foundation director Dr. Peter Evans. "I can understand why people look for some human factor that may be causing these strandings, but there is certainly no evidence."
According to Evans, the waters where the sperm whales ventured were much swallower than the depths the animals were used to, particularly in the southern part of Dogger Bank.
Evans said the sperm whales normally live in waters about 3,000 meters deep. The south of Dogger Bank is less than 50 meters in depth or could even be less than 20 meters.
The stomachs of the whales that were initially stranded in Holland contained several squid species. The sperm whales could catch these squid species up in the Norwegian Deep. Evans said the whales got themselves into trouble when they ventured south while they were following shoals of squid.
"As always, there should be a full investigation to see what we can learn from this. Fortunately, we have an experienced team of pathologists from the Zoological Society of London who are conducting a post mortem analysis in the UK, and Dutch and German scientists have been doing the same in their countries," added Evans.
Other experts have also ruled out common stranding causes such as entanglement or boat-strikes. All the sperm whales found were male and are believed to belong in the same bachelor group.
Photo: Amila Tennakoon | Flickr
