London Whale

[archman]

Whales don't normally go up estuaries, but it does occasionally happen.

If you think a bottlenosed whale in the Thames is odd, try having a pair of northern right whales in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas. Even my pal Tony Amos didn't believe it at first.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/01/18/whale.sighting.ap/

 

[Kim]

Whales don't normally go up estuaries, but it does occasionally happen.

What I can't really understand is how it got past the Thames barrier. You would think that such a barrier across the river would appear like a wall to the whale's sonar. After all lots of people say how intelligent they are!

 

[HilaryRN71]

I heard on the news tonight that they are investigating the possibility that it was "sent" there to check out the London spy headquarters, conveniently located on the Thames. At first I thought this was insane. But this is coming from the Brits, who apparently were just busted on one of their big spy operations in Russia, and they suspect the Russians were retaliating. Is that crazy or what??

 

[archman]

That bottlenosed species is pretty teeny... smaller than a killer whale. And their sonar is particularly acute. The beast could navigate its way up a dirty creek if it wanted to.

Offshore species show up inshore when they're sick, typically. We had a pantropical dolphin once that came into coastal Texas... the poor thing had an enormous brain tumour that soon put it into a coma. That's the only time I handled an unconscious dolphin... it was weird.

 

[Mr.X]

That bottlenosed species is pretty teeny... smaller than a killer whale. And their sonar is particularly acute. The beast could navigate its way up a dirty creek if it wanted to.

Offshore species show up inshore when they're sick, typically. We had a pantropical dolphin once that came into coastal Texas... the poor thing had an enormous brain tumour that soon put it into a coma. That's the only time I handled an unconscious dolphin... it was weird.

Very interesting. What species of dolphin and was the tumor suspicious? Poor critter. Thanks. X

 

[archman]

Very interesting. What species of dolphin and was the tumor suspicious? Poor critter. Thanks. X

Whoops, my bad. It was so long ago, I got the medical info wrong. It wasn't a brain tumour, but a nasty brain virus. Although I can't find a reference, I dimly recall being told that at least half her brain was full of fluid. Here's an old press release I dredged up on her.
http://www.tmmsn.org/press_releases/951015A.html

 

[Mr.X]

Whoops, my bad. It was so long ago, I got the medical info wrong. It wasn't a brain tumour, but a nasty brain virus. Although I can't find a reference, I dimly recall being told that at least half her brain was full of fluid. Here's an old press release I dredged up on her.
http://www.tmmsn.org/press_releases/951015A.html

Thanks for the link. It's always interesting to know what the causes of cetacean mortality are. I hope in the case of the London whale that it wasn't caused by people. BTW, like the photo of your large marine isopod. I saw something like that for sale in an Asian market once. Yummm? X

 

[subaquaman]

It has been said that a possible reason for such a whale ending up the thames was the military testing in uk waters. I am unsure of what these were, but this is a factor they are investigating

The Navy testing is to do with their use of a new sonar as far as I'm aware (though I'm open to correction). The sonar interferes with the whales natural sonar navigation sending them all over the place like metal near a compass!

More info here: http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e060121b.html

 

[Mr.X]

The Navy testing is to do with their use of a new sonar as far as I'm aware (though I'm open to correction). The sonar interferes with the whales natural sonar navigation sending them all over the place like metal near a compass!

More info here: http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e060121b.html

That's so awful. I would just wish they would quit it. Years ago some navy contractors ( I am assuming this because the military seems to enjoy staging stuff off Ca. + they had a bell, sat. chamber etc. ) off Catalina island was doing some work offshore. They were pinging like crazy. When I was underwater with my students (wearing a full hood) the damn thing was loud and irritating. I would imagine that sound sensitive animals would have fled that area. A week and half of this stuff really tends to grate on one's nerves and I wasn't even underwater that long with the students.

 

[Mr.X]

Here's some information on the possible causes of death for the London Whale:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4645726.stm


Poor critter. Dehydration is a tough & painful way to go. X