#strandings

A 40-ton whale died after becoming stranded on Washington’s Samish Island, becoming the latest in a string of whale deaths along the state’s coastline.  The whale became stranded on the island’s gravel beach on Monday night, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s regional branch said on social media. Researchers from local organizations responded on Tuesday morning, but the whale had…

Thursday night October 25th, a Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) stranded on the coast of De Haan (Belgium). This is the second largest mammal species living on earth! It is the first of his kind to strand in Belgium since 1997. Experts of the universities of Ghent and Liège and of our Institute (@rbins) took samples to investigate the presence of virusses and bacteria, heavy metals and other pollutants.

It was a male of 18m. The reason of death is yet to be determined, but the animal clearly lost a lot of weight, with fatty tissue layer of only 3 cm; usually this is about 10 cm. The cadaver has been cleared and is brought to a company who will process it to be used in biodiesel and biomass plants.

On the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island, there is a long bar of sand called Farewell Spit. The area is famous, but for an undesirable reason. It's a hotspot of whale strandings.

In February 2015, 200 pilot whales became stuck on the shore. It was the biggest stranding in the area in over a decade, according to local conservation teams. Rescuers spent hours trying to re-float them but 100 died. Without the support of water, the weight of their bodies crushed their muscles.

The remaining whales were watered and kept as comfortable as possible by volunteers equipped with buckets and spades. Sixty were eventually re-floated, but promptly stranded themselves again. Members of the public helped to re-float them a second time, and the whales are now believed to be back at sea.

And then there was this downer...

There was a young sea lion in the surf near shore.  It appeared to be ill.  Was having trouble keeping its head above water and was just getting tossed around by the waves.  Pretty sure it was sick.  Another beachgoer said they saw it throw up at least once and that it had been there the day before appearing to be sick.

You can see another sea lion farther off shore in the top photo.  That sea lion kept looking for the one in distress, but wouldn’t come close to the beach.  The general assumption was that it was the sick one’s mother, but there’s no way to confirm that.

There wasn’t much to do, but I called our local marine mammal stranding hotline and gave them the location and description of the sea lion having trouble.  They said they’d put an alert out.  I waited around for about three hours, but nobody showed up.  I don’t know what their response time is out here, though.  It’s also possible they couldn’t do anything until it actually stranded itself.