Disturbing news from Patagonia:
MORE than 300 southern right whales, most of them young calves, have been found dead in the past five years in the waters off Argentina’s Patagonian coast, one of their most important breeding grounds.
Possible causes of the deaths being examined include biotoxins – naturally occurring poisons – disease, environmental factors, and lack of prey, particularly the tiny krill that make up the bulk of the southern right whale’s diet. Another theory put forward has been the effect of gulls, which can act like parasites, gouging skin and blubber from the whales’ backs.
At a meeting this month in Patagonia sponsored by the International Whaling Commission, experts looked at the results of tests on samples taken from beached whale calves that showed ”unusually thin” blubber, said the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which described the die-off as ”a perplexing and urgent mystery”.