Ed: Feb 2008. Many of the earlier images in this particular thread have been lost, and probably never will be relocated for the purposes of reposting. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

2 strandings of whales and dolphins in Tasmania:

Link (http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,11538553%255E421,00.html)

and one in NZ:

Link (http://www.theage.com.au/news/Science/A-mystery-of-mass-death/2004/11/30/1101577482768.html?from=storylhs)

are mystifying experts:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD202161.htm

A squid connection (from second link):

That leaves prey movements. Pilot whales normally feed in the deep ocean on squid and fish.

Squid specialist Dr George Jackson, of the University of Tasmania, said there had been no known mass spawning locally that might have drawn whales into shore.

and some speculation:

Link (http://www.theage.com.au/news/Science/Winds-theory-on-fatal-beaching-of-whales/2004/11/29/1101577420278.html?from=storylhs)

and a transcript:

JOCELYN NETTLEFOLD: The weather appears to be central to the stranding cycle.

Every decade or so, atmospheric changes bring cooler sub-Antarctic waters further north.

Those waters are rich in squid and fish - the favoured prey of whales and dolphins - so, naturally, the mammals follow their food source, meaning that a lot more of them are spotted around Australia's coastline.

[edit: Ooops missed off the link (or accidentally removed it) - its:

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1255082.htm

and annotingly truncated mention of squid beaks:

PROFESSOR MARK HINDELL, UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA: So what's the biggest beak we've ever got from one of these sperm whale stomachs?

DR KAREN EVANS: One of the southern Antarctic species gets up to --

JOCELYN NETTLEFOLD: By analysing the stomach contents from dead whales and working with climatologists, these zoologists have established a pattern of whale strandings around Tasmania.

but as there are more intersting developments below.... ]

So what are the squiddly implications?

Emps, another sperm whale stranded just a few km from here yesterday morn, though no pics in the press (yet); I'm trying to get out there this afternoon to do the stomach contents.

"10-metre sperm whale beaches near Auckland
01 December 2004

A 10-metre sperm whale was found stranded and dead yesterday on an isolated beach between Karekare and Whatipu, west of Auckland.

Department of Conservation (DOC) spokeswoman Fiona Oliphant said it was in the same area where 12 sperm whales stranded a year ago, and was not connected with the pilot whale stranding at Opoutere, on the Coromendel Peninsula.

DOC staff planned to pull the whale up the beach at low tide last night and bury it today."

Not sure what the squiddly implications are, but I have to say I've been trying several nights a week since July to catch juvenile Nototodarus and have seen nary a one :( (so if my messages get sillier it's cos I'm :sleeping: ) I've also had myself and half our dept looking for Sepioloidea eggs for Steve (bet you thought I'd forgotten!!! :D ) with about the same amount of success!

Normally by this time of year we'd have several batches of eggs and I should've seen squid under jetty lights etc from July onwards :cry: :cry:

So in my humble opinion something's different this year. We're also losing Yellow Eyed Penguin Chicks to Avian Diptheria (over 50% of this years hatchlings :cry: :cry: :cry: )

Sadly (& tiredly)

J

Not sure what the squiddly implications are, but I have to say I've been trying several nights a week since July to catch juvenile Nototodarus and have seen nary a one :( (so if my messages get sillier it's cos I'm :sleeping: ) I've also had myself and half our dept looking for Sepioloidea eggs for Steve (bet you thought I'd forgotten!!! :D ) with about the same amount of success! J

I hadn't forgotten Jean, but I'd not brought it up seeing you were busy down there. Thanks for remembering.

Ahhhhh - the complete lack of squid in the oceans. This is something with which I am most familiar. It is extremely frustrating when having 'an expedition' and to not see a single animal! You begin to question your gear - something tried, tested and that has proven faithful - or worse still, your own competence. Add to this the woe of yet another reporter or camera, and you can second-guess the outcome of the story, and I'm getting tired of things ending the same-old way.

Things are not good out there, but this comes as no surprise! Keep on trying, that's all I can say, because the day you give up is the day they'll come in.

Thanks for the encouragement Steve! I needed it.

I probably have to stop for the meantime, as I have to finish the revisions to my thesis (I was hoping to include some more validation trials darn it but time marches on) I'll have another go later.

One of the things that has stopped me also is ethics approval. Now that squid are legally defined as animals I have to have approval to hold them! (I didn't have to last time so I forgot to get it :oops: , it's a lengthy procedure....minimum of a month!) So I'll apply and get on with other stuff in the meantime......so instead of sitting on the jetty til 2 or 3 am I'll be in front of the computer! .......oh well the dog will approve!


J

A very quick note; these are just the pleasant pics (I smell rather shocking); there'll be an update on the 'squid beaks from whale stomachs' in due course.

It was a 15.4m fully mature male; yes, we did get inside, although this one had a nasty habit of exploding ....

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3800

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3801

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3799

A few more of the jaw area (I've over 100 pics that I've not looked at yet, and nearly an hour of video).

A view a squid wouldn't be too keen on ... (the teeth are very worn on this old bull)
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3802

Very interesting texture within the mouth
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3803

No teeth (of consequence - they're tiny) in the upper jaw
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3804

... a wee update; the tooth wear is interesting! Obviously they use the teeth for something, unless they grind them while sleeping.

There were several thousand squid beaks in the stomach, and live parasitic worms (the whale had been dead for ~ 36 hrs, and had refused to budge from its place on the beach - being so heavy three separate wires broke as they tried to pull it up shore for burial). By necessity we had to autopsy it at ~ mid-water level.

Off for a vino and shower, not necessarily in that order.

Ok, now that I'm the right place, here are a couple of my photos from todays efforts... That's Steve on the far right.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/Whale01.jpg


This is the stomach laid out on the sand - at a 'safer' distance from the whale.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/steve-01.jpg

More... My photos are later, as I arrived at the whale a good 3 hours after Steve.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/first-cut.jpg

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/hmm.jpg

I sooooo wish we had a video if this...

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/bleargh.jpg

Totally amazing pics!!! I am in awe that we get to experience this first hand!!!

Jess was amazed at the size of this creature!!! And the teeth!!

Carol

Sadly, great pics...good thing they aren't "scratch and sniff" though...

Just a few more (there are many).

Anyone want to guess whether this level of enamel wear would cause ache?

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3818

I'm amazed by the level of enamel wear ... can you tell?
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3819

And the skin texture of the oral face of the lower jaw is amazing.
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3820

That enamel wear is incredible! Has that whale been chewing rocks???? Any guesses as to an age for the whale? Steve Dawson has a number of teeth that he's used for aging, but I'm not sure there's enough tooth there!

J

I am so kicking myself Jean; I looked at those flukes and saw all sorts of gobble marks out of them - I thought of taking a pick and then I saw also the wear caused by the rope when hauling (attempting to at least) the thing up the beach. I didn't have the common sense to take fluke pics!! Never thought that others could use these images (other than just to look at).

Anyone want to guess whether this level of enamel wear would cause ache?

So you think he beached to look for a dentist?

Melissa

Not too sure about that Melissa ... interesting thought. I'm looking forward to getting the data from these stomach contents that we're amassing here.

I've just a few other pics that I'll post - mainly because there aren't that many different pics of strandings out there for people to use (sure, there are many of masses, but few close ups; they're mostly press shots). I hope I'm not boring anyone with countless shots of death.

I have a good reason for taking so many pics (and video) of these stranded specimens, but this will not become apparent for a year or so (a long-term project that is about to get off the ground).

At this point (following pic) the whale is being pulled out of a depression in the sand, left after the tide receded. It is completely intact, although it has been dead for some 36hrs; the water in the depression is largely blood, and has probably come from a ruptured tongue (protruding from the throat). For reasons that will become apparent in a year-or-so, this is a major concern
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3822

In this shot the unusual dorsal ridge system towards the posterior of the whale is most pronounced. As you get older you forget a few things (and get wrinkles), but I don't recollect having seen this so pronounced in the past; I must check the archive images.
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3823

The blubber layer is extremely thick on this bull, and the tools available rather inadequate to handle the size of the specimen. The grader was called in to assist in removing the blubber layer so that DOC staff could remove the lower jaw for local Maori/iwi (as is customary). It might look barbaric, and the job is not for the faint of heart, but it is something that they are obliged to do.
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3821

Finally

You can quite clearly see the difficulty the grader is having moving this goliath to the high-water mark (so that it can be buried). The grader is making faster progress moving backwards than the whale is making moving forwards. Three wires broke during this exercise; it had to be abandoned for the night.
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3825

This image is just a variant of that in an earlier post
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3826

As is this...
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3824

OK, just one more ....

I'm not sure how many images like this have made it online, and I'm not about to do a Google search (at work) to find out (for fear of being dismissed). From what I understand it does not naturally protrude, but does when the pressure inside the dead whale basically pushes it out (and there's a lot of explosive pressure inside one of these animals!!!!).
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3827

Here are a few more...

This is of the beaks in situ. Before the stomach was removed and collection resumed at um, a safer distance.


http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3835



This is the haul of beaks:



http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/beaks-and-parasites.jpg



This the removal of the jaw:


http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/jaw-removed.jpg

Not boring at all!!!! Can you tell us anything about a year from now???? :mrgreen:

Carol

Sehkrit

Sehkrit
you are a sick puppy (http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=855) :wink: jk

:periscop:

http://www.greatsouth.net/p-F1295.html

Another whale has stranded, so I'll be back on the beach again tomorrow ....

Another whale has stranded, so I'll be back on the beach again tomorrow ....

Any chance for a lift, sir?

TPOTH

You're on; probably leaving ~ 1pm. Sounds strange for TPOTH and O to arrange a time online, rather than face-to-face, but the way things have been these past few weeks we don't see each other that often (except for this eve, when he told me I'd had a drink)

Here are some shots of this Whale that stranded a few days ago. It was in a pretty bad way, having been on the beach for about 4 days.


http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3880


http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3879


http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3878

Ja, Matt, you beat me to it, and got the better pics this time - I had the backlight on of all things. Ja, smell something horrid again!!.

Interesting haul of beaks from this one; I've got to drop everything else and get to work on these.

Here's my contribution:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3883

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3882

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3881

good lord, the poor thing had an erection at the time it died :oops:

Ok here are some more... Actually I don't smell too fragrant either... This was a long way north of Murawai Beach, on Auckland's west coast. We drove north along the beach for approx. 20-25 minutes and estimate it was about 25-30Km north of Murawai Bch.


A pretty dismal scene as the tide comes in...

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3886

Steve taking pics.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3885

The tip of the lower jaw - note the scratches and damaged teeth.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3884

Steve,

My shots have been photoshopped quite a bit... Lightened or darkened, sharpened, colour-corrected, horizon-straightened and reduced in size for internet consumption. :mrgreen:


Beaks and assorted whale goo...

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3888

Note the scratches...

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3890

Some more...

Where we drove from...

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3891

Note the broken teeth

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3892

Another whale shot

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3893

A headless Felipe takes pictures of the flukes.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3894

No really, that's a Honda City... It's not everyday you get to overtake a Honda City, on the inside, on a beach, in a Landrover (I could go on)...

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3895

Pre - jaw removal

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3896

:P

You're on; probably leaving ~ 1pm. Sounds strange for TPOTH and O to arrange a time online, rather than face-to-face, but the way things have been these past few weeks we don't see each other that often (except for this eve, when he told me I'd had a drink)

First off, Master O, i must thank thee :notworth: I got to see my first whale (albeit beached, dead, rotting, drawn and quartered... but that's cool when you're into that sort of stuff :twisted: ) *happy dance*

As much as i get to deal with roting fish and macerating skulls on a more or less daily basis, i can safely say that nothing prepares you for such a stench. This brings smelly to a whole new different level. :bonk: Note for later: do not park the car downwind of the whale :lol:

I'm rummaging through the pictures i took to see if i can add something but i reckon you two probably covered everything... ;)

Would have loved to nab a pectoral fin or the tail before the tide came in... Note to self: next time, bring chainsaw and somebody to run interference

TPOTH

Ok, my batch of pictures, since it's been all about the whale, i thought i'd show you all the man behind it all :)

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/ready_for_action.jpg
Always prepared and still soooo clean... the "after" pictures were deemed to gory for the young'ens that are known to dwell on TONMO

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/pinata.jpg
Like a kid in a candy shop! :lol:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/lower_jaw.jpg
The lower jaw finally removed... with significant help from the digger brought to bury the whale but ran out of time so had to leave before the tide...

TPOTH

:shock: :?: Why is that man in the middle, with a white hazmat suit, wearing a climbing harness?

No really, that's a Honda City... It's not everyday you get to overtake a Honda City, on the inside, on a beach, in a Landrover (I could go on)...


I was speaking to someone this morning .... did you know that there was a speed limit on the beach? Apparently it's 50km/hr (same as in town) ... but I think we took that 'city' doing 110. :goofysca: They called after seeing this rather distinctive, branded truck hurtling down the beach at breakneck speed (heavens, we did have 30km of beach, a whale and a return trip to get in before the tide turned on us).

Washed ~ 10kg of sand off the truck this morn ... and I'd like to thank the two persons that left stinking pairs of blood- and whale-soaked white and red socks in the back. As if the smell wasn't bad enough (fresh after last week).

I'm going to 'drop everything' in a minute and get into those squid beaks; there's a rather sensational story in there for sure. By months end I hope to have some data online.

I'm going to..get into those squid beaks.i daren't ask...:P jk

PS. this is a great thread, imho. i appreciate what i've seen & learned.

I'd like to thank the two persons that left stinking pairs of blood- and whale-soaked white and red socks in the back.

yeah - beats smoking cigarettes - there's no ban on smoking socks.....

Would have loved to nab a pectoral fin or the tail before the tide came in... Note to self: next time, bring chainsaw and somebody to run interference

A chainsaw!!!! Are you mad? You are soooooo doing that job. As for running interference, I think I'll just run. Also, what are you going to do with a 6' by 6' tail? It's not like it's going to fit under your bed?

Still it would be funny, and I would probably pay money to see it. Plus if we videoed it we could probably make a bit of money on the rights.
:wink: :P

Would have loved to nab a pectoral fin or the tail before the tide came in... Note to self: next time, bring chainsaw and somebody to run interference

A chainsaw!!!! Are you mad? You are soooooo doing that job.
Of course! not gonna let somebody else spoil my fun :twisted:

As for running interference, I think I'll just run. Also, what are you going to do with a 6' by 6' tail? It's not like it's going to fit under your bed?
Was thinking it would make a cool display in the "marine" lab... so far we only have a handful of crummy B&W pages tacked on here and there.
Or i could just buy a really big bed...

Still it would be funny, and I would probably pay money to see it. Plus if we videoed it we could probably make a bit of money on the rights.
:wink: :P
And if it's not funny enough we can always blow up the whale... always makes for good viewing :lol:

TPOTH

As for running interference, I think I'll just run

There's the whole spraying of decomposing whale fragments to consider, while you chainsaw away... I can picture the pink mist and the desperate running (upwind)... Few however, can comprehend the stench, you earn information from beached whales...

Still, it would make great tv... Hey I'm right there with you! Well, upwind a bit.

:P

Was thinking it would make a cool display in the "marine" lab... so far we only have a handful of crummy B&W pages tacked on here and there.


Two words:

extractor fan

Many words:

We don't have one yet.

Two words:

extractor fan

Many words:

We don't have one yet.


awwww c'mon Matt where's your adventurous spirit? your scientifically enquiring mind? (before you ask YES I have smelled decomposing whale and seal and seal lion!)

Y'never know you could bottle the scent and sell it as "l'eau de whale pong" would fit right in there with last years "l'eau de squid pong"


J

Y'never know you could bottle the scent and sell it as "l'eau de whale pong" would fit right in there with last years "l'eau de squid pong"

We are currently battling it out in the wetlab. In competition:
"l'eau de squid beaks" by :oshea:
"l'eau de rattails" by Matt Jones
"l'eau de sharks" by TPOTH

Can report that we are all pretty immune to the stench but :oshea: seems to be leading... chalk it to experience i think. My own concoction requires a tiny bit of time to mature to pugnent ammonia flavour... :twisted:

TPOTH

Y'never know you could bottle the scent and sell it as "l'eau de whale pong" would fit right in there with last years "l'eau de squid pong"

We are currently battling it out in the wetlab. In competition:
"l'eau de squid beaks" by :oshea:
"l'eau de rattails" by Matt Jones
"l'eau de sharks" by TPOTH

Can report that we are all pretty immune to the stench but :oshea: seems to be leading... chalk it to experience i think. My own concoction requires a tiny bit of time to mature to pugnent ammonia flavour... :twisted:

TPOTH

Add in some asfoetida (I think that's how it's spelt!) Nasty smelling plant material, real puke inducing stuff.....then you'll win you might even crack the famous :oshea: "what smell?" poker face :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

J

you might even crack the famous :oshea: "what smell?" poker face :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


Already have :lol:
I did "forget" two half dissected sharks we used for the Discovery Channel in the sink one wekend... can guarantee you that the poker face was well and truly shattered on Monday morning :D
..or it could have been that "French smell" ??? :cry:

TPOTH

you might even crack the famous :oshea: "what smell?" poker face :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


Already have :lol:
I did "forget" two half dissected sharks we used for the Discovery Channel in the sink one wekend... can guarantee you that the poker face was well and truly shattered on Monday morning :D
..or it could have been that "French smell" ??? :cry:

TPOTH

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I find a nicely mature Moroteuthis Tentacle or mantle under the sink gets a reaction from the whole building (mind you so does boiling a seal head to get the teeth out!) :twisted:

J

An unfortunate resurrection...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051025/sc_afp/australiaanimalswhales_051025140312

60 pilots whales beached themselves in Marion Bay, Tasmania.

Its interesting to think about how long humans have known about whale strandings, and yet we still only have theories as to why it happens. We really don't know anything about anything. I can't remember it exactly, but David Suzuki, Canadian scientist/activist, said something along the lines that he'd worked with fruit flies for over 21 years and he still didn't know half of what was going on with these "simple" creatures. Really gives you pause as to what we're doing to this here Earth.

Cheers, Jesse

A large pod (Pilot Whales) stranded here last week; the majority were fortunately saved.

The NZ Department of Conservation and volunteers have done a marvelous job in salvaging something from this tragedy (over and above saving the majority of them), and saw to it that the stomach's of a number of specimens were sampled, the contents saved and soon-to-be en route to us for more detailed examination. I was unable to get down, as this had been a rather busy time up here.

In the attached press release I note (with interest) that the stomachs are reported to be 'empty', and they were, largely so (sounds familiar doesn't it; we're looking at this in sperm whales and pygmy sperm whales also), but in discussions with those that extracted the contents, there are a few squid beaks and parasites within (maybe from 7 specimens; at least 2 were empty). Previously we had no information on the diet of this whale in NZ waters, which is quite bizarre given their mass-stranding nature. As soon as we get the beaks post Christmas (a terrible time with university and Department/Ministry close downs, but the time I get the most done because there are no disturbances) we'll be able to post something online. We had only anecdotal information that these whales ate fish in NZ waters .... but to the best of my knowledge there were no fish remains amongst the contents.

The following copy/pasted from this link
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3521131a11,00.html

Volunteers bury 24 whales
23 December 2005
By HELEN MURDOCH

Kaumatua Te Aroha (Losa) Holmwood prayed and cried as 24 of the pilot whales that stranded on Puponga beach were buried.


The mass grave lies within sight and sound of the sea at the base of Farewell Spit, the notorious sandy arm which has trapped so many marine mammals in the past.

But while the digger gently shifted the sand dune over the mammals' grave yesterday, 100-plus whales saved by a mass of volunteers swam powerfully out to sea.

"The whales have feeling for each other, if one gets sick or hurt they follow it in to shore," said Holmwood.

"Then all the people come out and nurse and bathe them so they can get back out to sea, but unfortunately these ones did not go back."

The incoming tide lapping piles of excavated sand off Puponga beach, in a second rescue effort, was the only sign yesterday of this week's massive effort to save some 120 long-finned pilot whales which stranded high on the intertidal shore on Tuesday.

Across from the beach, in the campground of Farewell Gardens Holiday Park, British visitor Kulbir Dhingra marvelled at his unexpected brush with the mammals.

AdvertisementAdvertisementHe and his family arrived to find Puponga packed with cars and people.

"I've never experienced anything like it, we spent the whole day helping. They are very gentle and respond when you pour water over them," Dhingra said.

"It was an amazing vibe and I felt like I was doing something useful and important.

"And so many people came from so far away – the community effort was incredible."

The family's decision to go to yesterday's burial was simple, he said.

"We had to get closure on it."

The Golden Bay Department of Conservation whale co-ordinator Simon Walls, meanwhile, looked exhausted, but happy so many whales could be saved.

He has managed three major rescue operations in as many days.

The main effort to refloat the stranded whales was a marathon effort, with 300-plus volunteers and DOC staff from as far away as Nelson working together and patiently waiting for the tide.

"People are the powerhouse of a refloating. We just co-ordinate things behind the scenes," Walls said.

By 5pm they had got the whales bunched together in chest-deep water. Then they had to wait for the stressed mammals to recover enough to start swimming.

"If you put your head under the water it was buzzing with whale communication," Walls said. "It seemed to take forever to rally and find a sense of direction, then they literally got into a formation, formed a line about a kilometre long and started to head out."

Boats stayed with the pod until the wind raised the sea to a rough chop, then a splinter group of 50 curved back to shore, about 5km south of Puponga, he said.

Volunteers who were still at hand moved rapidly to the new site and quickly turned the whales around, using belly slings and sheer muscle, herding them back out to sea.

Early yesterday morning the whales were spotted by plane moving back towards shore, this time near the Rototai bar, on the southern side of Golden Bay.

DOC workers moved quickly and stopped them and turned them in a metre of water before they beached.

Dissection of the dead whales showed their stomachs were empty, said Walls.

Walls said the stranding scenario could not have been much worse.

The whales were very high on Puponga's long intertidal beach, inside the shelter of Puponga Point and the tides were very poor. The site of the stranding was a long way from urban populations of volunteers, he said.

"Still we didn't lose any people and we didn't lose too many whales. It's better than the bad old days when stranded whales were just shot, or totally ignored."

Off to another stranding first thing morrow morn; 5hr drive. A 15m male sperm whale has stranded off Mahia Peninsula (for those that know where this is) today; the supposed season to be jolly is a season to be sombre, from a whale's perspective. I'm surprised that we haven't had a stranding just west of where we're based this year (I should be happy).

An update soon!

Well, the update is that they buried it before I could get there, so we lost out on that opportunity to get another stomach content. It had been dead for some time by the sounds of things. It's always a difficult time of the year when DOC (Department of Conservation) find themselves under-resourced in terms of personnel. Sad!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4573824.stm
Sad, sad, sad

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4329629.stm
"Strandings of cetaceans (the group that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises) have increased from 360 in 1994 to 782 in 2004, the report finds.

Since only a fraction of dead whales and dolphins will eventually arrive on beaches to be counted, the actual number of cetacean deaths is almost certainly much higher.

"We believe that the numbers of animals we see stranded probably represents 10% of what is being killed out there," Richard Sabin, of the Natural History Museum, London, told the BBC News website."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4389712.stm

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4573824.stm Dozens of stranded pilot whales have been shot dead in New Zealand to end their suffering when it was ruled too difficult to get them back in the sea.

How horrible for the volunteers trying to save the whales (and horrible for the whales too...):sad:

Sad indeed. I wonder...it appears that there seems to be a lot of strandings all of a sudden. Is there traditionally a "season" when strandings are particularly high, or is all this just coincidental?

Cheers to the volunteers for doing all that they can!

There have been 15,000+ recorded whale strandings in NZ since around 1860. Of these over two-thirds have been pilot whales...its nothing unusual. (who called them 'pilot' whales anyway??) Any "season" for strandings coincides with increased public use of the beaches in summer, hence more observations. Because of the insulating nature of whale blubber, internal decomposition is rapid, leaving only the blubber (a.k.a. 'globsters') after only a few days. A 40 foot sperm whale will completely rot and disappear within 10 days.
Interestingly, as recently as the 1960s there are front page photographs in the local newspapers of the day showing "macho" sharpshooters with thier dolphin "trophies", which they managed to shoot from the beach. The dolphinariums/marineworlds have done a remarkable job in re-educating the public into worshipping these animals.

Thanks for helping to put this into perspective Chris. Interesting reading.

Here's an interesting story; I got a bit of a shock when I read it this morning, as it was based on a brief conversation with a reporter several days ago.

The content is fine, except it is a pilot whale, not Mesoplodon. I would have liked to have seen the article beforehand, before released, but alas, this did not happen. At least we're getting the story out, and the reporter has done some homework. More to follow no doubt, in weeks to come, when we conduct the autopsy.

Click here (http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3659054a7693,00.html)

To see a CT pic of the beast concerned click here (http://www.tonmo.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2424&d=1146134315). It was just a little too long to fit through the CT scan, so the flukes and rear part of the vertebral column are missing.

We've just returned from a wee trip down south, where we got snowed in for 2 days in a place that grows carrots somewhere in the middle of North Island (NZ), all roads in and out were shut (slips, snow, ice, blizards ....), in order to get this partial dead whale's stomach contents. Emma has much better pics on her camera (she's working on stomach contents of these brutes), so I'll get her to post them shortly.

It was COLD!!

Even though there's no snow on the ground around the 'headless' whale (don't ask; in the name of science, and not us), it was cold there; the carcass was 5 days old, although we managed to secure the entire alimentary tract. Fantastic stuff therein. More to follow.

It is a Pygmy Sperm Whale - rarely stranding in this particular area (more common elsewhere.

Pics of Emma, snow at lower and slightly higher altitudes, before the road was closed!

To get to this (see previous post), and it was SO worthwhile!!!

We've just returned from a wee trip down south, where we got snowed in for 2 days in a place that grows carrots somewhere in the middle of North Island (NZ), .


Uh huh...so now we're reporting strandings form the shores of Taupo?

In response to M:

It is a Pygmy Sperm Whale - rarely stranding in this particular area (more common elsewhere.
It is very rare for pygmy sperm whales to strand in Taupo, and even more rare considering this was the headless variety, the extremely rare grass-eating, field-dwelling Kogia pseudocephalus. (This carcass had been dragged slightly inland so as not to be washed away.) It came ashore near Wanganui, but getting anywhere near Wanganui was a major feat this past week.

A large pod (Pilot Whales) stranded here last week; the majority were fortunately saved.

Just doing some housework. The stomach contents of these whales have since been reported and can be found here. (http://www.tonmo.com/science/public/Beatson%20et%20al%202007.pdf)