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Marine biologists in Brazil were stunned to discover a young humpback whale on Friday that had washed ashore on a remote, forested island in the Amazon River, at a time of the year when it should have already migrated thousands of miles to Antarctica.
Members of the conservation group Bicho D’Água found the whale after following vultures that were circling a mangrove on the island in the Amazon, Marajó Island, the group said. About 50 feet from the shore, scientists spotted the lifeless humpback — about 26 feet long — lodged in thick shrubs and brush. It had been dead for at least several days, government officials in Pará, a state in northern Brazil, told local news media.
While tens of thousands of humpback whales are estimated to live in the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil, nearly all of them have migrated south by this time of year, the summer in the Southern Hemisphere, to feed near Antarctica. But this humpback was found near the mouth of the Amazon River, some 4,000 miles from its expected feeding grounds, a baffling discovery that has stumped the scientists who found it.
“We imagine it was floating and the tide took it into the mangrove,” Renata Emin, the president of Bicho D’Água, told the Brazilian news site G1. “The question is, What was a humpback whale doing in the month of February on the northern coast of Brazil? It’s unusual.”
Biologists examined the carcass over the weekend during low tide, looking for signs of how the whale might have died, and took samples for a necropsy, the group said. The whale, while about half the length of a full-grown humpback, was too large and in too remote an area to be entirely removed.
Ms. Emin told G1 that the group hypothesized that the young whale got detached from its mother before it died.
Humpbacks travel great distances every year, slowly migrating to and from the poles. Those in the Northern Hemisphere migrate this time of year to tropical waters before returning north in the summer. In the Southern Hemisphere, they migrate south during this time of year and return north during their winter, in the breeding season.
Ms. Emin said her group was examining the whale to try to determine its cause of death.
“We are collecting information, identifying marks on the body, to determine if it was trapped in a net or hit by a boat,” she told G1, adding that a necropsy report was expected in about 10 days.
Ms. Emin did not respond to an email seeking comment.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, whalers killed at least 200,000 humpbacks in the Southern Hemisphere, decimating the population, according to scientists. But worldwide conservation efforts in recent decades, and treaties enacted to outlaw whaling, have saved the once endangered species. Commercial whaling was outlawed in South America and Antarctica in 1994.
The rising humpback population has also increased the odds that one will become entangled in fishing nets or be struck by a ship, believed to be leading causes of their deaths. Every year, an estimated 300,000 whales and dolphins die after getting caught in fishing gear, according to the International Whaling Commission. The commission, which also tracks so-called ship strikes, has recorded more than 1,200 collisions between whales and ships since 2009.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/scie ... mazon.html
Imaginerspann wrote:Put there as a prank?
Improbability drive at work fellas.H.S.E GuY wrote:Les Bain - Did they also find a small bowl of Petunias nearby?
Just saw that movie last week - one of my absolute favorites!
Gta5 reality....luxuravi wrote:What the heck? If this is legit then they might soon start appearing in the middle of our cities blocking the traffic...
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