There have been a number of sperm whale deaths around the North Sea this month (including one that died yesterday at Hunstanton beach in Norfolk). This phenomena used to be a mystery when it occurred.
However now scientists are able to explain it .... well mostly.
Apparently it is something to do with sea depths. Sperm whales and their prey the giant squid are deep ocean beasts. However occasionally a pod of sperm whales will follow squid into the North Sea which is a shallow sea.
The shallow sea disrupts the sperm whales deep echo location systems to such an extent that they become disoriented and can neither find their way back to the Atlantic ocean nor catch food. They then become ill and start beaching themselves. It's all very sad, like the death of all things.
Even when well meaning groups re-float the creatures, they just tend to beach elsewhere. ... only if you took them back to the deep ocean would they have any chance but dragging such large animals would simply drown them.
Nature can seem to be very cruel .... but its a rule that a fish (yes I know they are mammals), out of water always dies.
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| Sperm Whales Washed Up On The Lincolnshire Coast, And All Around The North Sea. |
However now scientists are able to explain it .... well mostly.
Apparently it is something to do with sea depths. Sperm whales and their prey the giant squid are deep ocean beasts. However occasionally a pod of sperm whales will follow squid into the North Sea which is a shallow sea.
The shallow sea disrupts the sperm whales deep echo location systems to such an extent that they become disoriented and can neither find their way back to the Atlantic ocean nor catch food. They then become ill and start beaching themselves. It's all very sad, like the death of all things.
Even when well meaning groups re-float the creatures, they just tend to beach elsewhere. ... only if you took them back to the deep ocean would they have any chance but dragging such large animals would simply drown them.
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| Nature Can Seem Cruel |
Nature can seem to be very cruel .... but its a rule that a fish (yes I know they are mammals), out of water always dies.
The question about the categoration of the whale arose in a court case against a whale oil dealer who refused to pay a tax on fish oil. The prosecutor employed a religious argument to prove that the whale is a fish which was of course wrong, as so much dogma is.
ReplyDeleteWell I guess that the religious might reply with an observation that modern science, in the words of G. K. Chesterton, is racing toward the mysteries of the Faith with the speed of an express train.
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