HUNDREDS OF WHALES FOUND DEAD IN CHILE
SANTIAGO, Chile – More than 300 whales have been found
washed up in a remote inlet in Patagonia in southern Chile in one of the
largest die-offs on record, researchers said Tuesday.
“It was an apocalyptic sight. I’d never seen anything like
it,” said one of the scientists who made the discovery, Vreni Haussermann of
the Huinay Scientific Center.
Scientists launched an expedition to count the animals after
20 sei whales were reported dead in April, beached in an extremely remote
region some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) south of the capital Santiago.
When the researchers flew over the region in June, they
found the scale of the die-off was much larger: at least 337 dead whales,
“including bodies and skeletons,” said Haussermann.
- “There are still a lot of areas we haven’t managed to reach, so it’s likely there are more dead whales,” she told AFP.
- The die-off, the biggest single event of its kind known to science, will be investigated in an upcoming issue of National Geographic magazine, which funded the expedition.
- Scientists initially said the whales did not bear any wounds, suggesting they may have died of a virus or a harmful algal bloom known as “red tide.”
The gruesome find comes as countries get down to tough
negotiations at crunch talks in Paris, which are seeking a pact to curb climate
change.
Marine biologists say the warming of the world’s oceans is
putting dangerous pressure on whale populations by killing off their food supply and changing their age-old migratory routes.
Source:– AFP
MORE THAN 20 DEAD WHALES FOUND IN CHILE BEACH
SANTIAGO, Chile –
More than 20 whales were found dead and rotting along a rocky coast of southern
Chile, maritime officials said Friday, as they tried to determine what killed
them and when.The whales, discovered beached north of the Gulf of Penas, measured about 10 meters (33 feet) long, according to officials with Chile’s national fisheries service.
Officials identified them as sei whales, which are internationally protected after being hunted nearly to extinction during the middle of the 20th century.
Images showed the decaying mammals grouped together and laid out along a grass-and-rock shoreline.
They were discovered by a group of foreign scientists who were conducting research in the area.
“The number of dead whales exceeded 20, but we have not tallied the total,” a fisheries service source told AFP, declining to be identified.
Bad weather was hampering attempts to determine exactly how
many whales had died and when.
“They were everywhere, none were injured, so we thought they suffered from a red tide (algal bloom) or a virus,” said German biologist Vreni Haussermann, who led the group that found the whales.
The cold area in southern Chile where the whales was found
is in a partially closed and rugged fjord surrounded by green forests. A
military base is located several miles from the beached whales’ location.
Haussermann said the scientists discovered the whales on April 21, but they only recently returned to a town where they were able to alert the fisheries service.
“I think they were swept away by the currents. In my 15 years in the area I never saw something like that,” added Haussermann, who was conducting a fauna survey when they made the grim discovery.
“They were everywhere, none were injured, so we thought they suffered from a red tide (algal bloom) or a virus,” said German biologist Vreni Haussermann, who led the group that found the whales.
The cold area in southern Chile where the whales was found
is in a partially closed and rugged fjord surrounded by green forests. A
military base is located several miles from the beached whales’ location. Haussermann said the scientists discovered the whales on April 21, but they only recently returned to a town where they were able to alert the fisheries service.
“I think they were swept away by the currents. In my 15 years in the area I never saw something like that,” added Haussermann, who was conducting a fauna survey when they made the grim discovery.
Source: AFP
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
