slingshot
Contributor
I recently was reading a story on-line (okay, I get a fair amount of my "news" by reading the news section on Yahoo, people were stealing the newspaper from in front of my building) about a woman who performs autopsies on whales as part of research on marine mammals. I was interested to hear that in the dissection of a large whale found on shore, a number of organs including the stomach and bowels were herniated up into the thoracic cavity of the animal, and a bruise was found on the animals side next to the pectoral fin. The researcher speculated that such injuries could imply being struck by a large object. I did a little on-line search, and found a number of stories about whales being struck by shipping, including several incidences when whales were dragged into port impaled upon the bow of cruise ships, as below:
Jewel of the Seas, Finback, 9/2004, Canada
Atlantic Cartier, Minke, 7/2004, Liverpool
Celebrity Galaxy, Fin, 6/1999, Vancouver
I also, among others, found the following report.
www.nefsc.noaa.gov/press_release/shipstrike03.pdf
I presume the impaled whales were impaled because of the bulbous bows of the ships (a submarine like prow on a ship that reduces drag at high speed, a bulbous bow protrudes like a torpedo out from the front of the ship), and figure that for every whale impaled, a great many others must be struck and otherwise killed or injured.
With all the talk on some of the other threads about whaling, and whale biology, and due to my own sympathy towards marine mammals in general, I thought I'd post this for your consideration and comment.
Jewel of the Seas, Finback, 9/2004, Canada
Atlantic Cartier, Minke, 7/2004, Liverpool
Celebrity Galaxy, Fin, 6/1999, Vancouver
I also, among others, found the following report.
www.nefsc.noaa.gov/press_release/shipstrike03.pdf
I presume the impaled whales were impaled because of the bulbous bows of the ships (a submarine like prow on a ship that reduces drag at high speed, a bulbous bow protrudes like a torpedo out from the front of the ship), and figure that for every whale impaled, a great many others must be struck and otherwise killed or injured.
With all the talk on some of the other threads about whaling, and whale biology, and due to my own sympathy towards marine mammals in general, I thought I'd post this for your consideration and comment.
