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Jun

15

2007
 
 

Decomposing problems



Sperm whale strandings are linked to sea temperature, long term data show a whale's taleThe North Sea is no place for sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus – they have trouble navigating shallow waters and their favorite squid prey don’t live there. So it’s no surprise that scientists have long been interested in understanding why every now and then one -- or even a group -- of the giant cetaceans washes up dead. Strandings have been recorded since the mid-Sixteenth century, and analysis of these data by Aberdeen University marine biologist Graham Pierce and colleagues has dispelled a few choice hypotheses on why the whales get into trouble. Writing in Fisheries Research, Pierce’s team present evidence that sea temperature anomalies are the most significant factor associated with strandings. They speculate that climatic shifts change the distribution of squid Gonatus fabricii. Female squid congregate in Arctic waters off Norway to spawn, dangerously close to the edge of the North Sea “trap” from which the whales seem to have difficulty escaping. The findings at least let us off the hook (slightly): clumps in the pattern of strandings have been going on far longer than the most destructive period of whaling. Source: Pierce GJ, Santos MB, Smeenk C, Saviliev A & Zuur AF (2007) Historical trends in the incidence of strandings of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) on North Sea coasts: an association with positive temperature anomalies. Fisheries Research DOI: 10.1016/j.fishres.2007.06.001

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