Dead sperm whale found in Gulf

[Robbien]

Source: Fox News

The whale was found floating 77 miles due south of the Deepwater Horizon spill site.

. . .

They say its condition suggests it has been dead for several days to more than a week, and they are taking samples from it to glean information on how and where it died.

. . .

They live at depth in areas where subsurface dispersants and oil are present, and feed on deepwater squid, which may also be impacted by the oil and dispersants.

The sperm whales are an endangered species, and some scientists say that just a few sperm whale deaths could endanger the long-term survival of the Gulf's entire native sperm whale population.

The NOAA ship that spotted the whale is due back in port July 2. After that, they say full analysis of the samples will take several weeks.

Read more: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/oil_spill/dead-sperm-whale-found-in-gulf-06162010

---

damnation

[flvegan]

1. Few more, and it could mark the end of a species.

Well done everyone.

[CreekDog]

15. they say the sperm whale population in the Gulf can only absorb about 3 whale deaths

and that's one third of them.

[flvegan]

16. Exactly. You're right.

[Soylent Brice]

24. ...

:wow:

[CreekDog]

51. Yes, gestation is long and there are only so many able to breed

at a given time.

so about a month ago, this is the number scientists pegged .

[LaurenG]

42. I agree

:cry:

[tekisui]

2. It is going to be a long, sad summer.

[MrMickeysMom]

58. Yes, indeed, it is.

[dgibby]

3. Damn these greedy bastards to hell and back! n/t

[happygoluckytoyou]

32. RELATED NEWS--FOX Television speculates the cause might be a new whale disease and not the oil spill

[Patchuli]

45. "New whale disease?!"

The "whale disease" is call HUMAN and Fux News is a prime example of stupid human. What lying nimrods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gauguin57]

47. Fox no like this new-fangled thing called science.

They would rather pull factoids out of their asses.

[mikelgb]

4. fuckitall

[AtheistCrusader]

5. BP should be held responsible, like any private citizen, for killing endangered animals

if it turns out this one died due to the spill.

[bread_and_roses]

6. oh goddess damn it all to hell we knew this was coming

and worse and worse and worse to come still...what is there to say? It is all too awful for words.

[earthboundmisfit]

7. Sad K&R

from link:
"They live at depth in areas where subsurface dispersants and oil are present, and feed on deepwater squid, which may also be impacted by the oil and dispersants."
:cry:

[Prometheus Bound]

8. They want to find out "how" it died?

Let me guess.

[Recursion]

11. Well, sperm whales do die

I mean, it's not a categorical necessity that every single dead marine animal in the Gulf was killed by the oil slick. It's just that nearly all of them were.

And, in fact, getting hard data on which kills are from the oil and which aren't would be a very good thing to do.

[caseymoz]

27. I think it's unusual that they float to the surface when they die.

They sink to the ocean floor, I believe, where their bodies are eaten by carcass worms.

If it's rising to the surface, my sense is it has been ingesting something that made its body more buoyant. Now, what would that be?

[TZ]

29. Actually you are wrong

Because of the blubber, whale carcasses float...And are generally eaten by other denizens as that happens...I had a college buddy who did autopsies of whale carcasses that were found floating in the Chesapeake Bay.

[caseymoz]

39. Then I retract. What can I say? I'm a landlubber in a landlocked state. nt

[Recursion]

33. I've seen dead whales floating in the Pacific

My understanding is that marine mammals, marine reptiles, and fatty fish float, while lean fish sink.

[petronius]

56. Sperm whales often float after death, since the blubber makes them buoyant

Other whales even more so - right whales are particularly buoyant and got their name because they were the 'right' whales to hunt due to the floating after being killed.

However, I think you're partly on the right track: whales that die of natural causes are more likely to be nutritionally-deprived and thus less buoyant, while a healthy whale killed by a ship-collision or a toxic environment would be more buoyant. However, the floating doesn't really imply anything about this particular whale's death.

Carcasses that do sink are major sources of deep-sea nutrients, and there are some awesome videos of bottom scavengers picking clean dead whales...

[dgibby]

35. Hard to do when the "evidence" is being destroyed

by the very same perps who caused the catastrophe in the first place.

[Catherina]

9. Just three dead sperm whales could push the Gulf population over the edge

:cry:


Just three dead sperm whales could push the Gulf population over the edge



:cry: :cry: :cry:

[Mira]

10. If it were not so GD effing sad,

I would make a "joke" and say "it must be food poisoning".

[Bette Noir]

12. Heartbreaking.

[nolabear]

13. I would like to personally apologize for the entire human race.

I wish to god it would do some good.

[Jefferson23]

14. I went to see the documentary Oceans back in April, the film is so beautiful. Is that

what we are going to have left to leave future generations...film footage of what an ocean is suppose to look like?

[onestepforward]

17. I saw "Dolphins and Whales 3-D" yesterday

at an Imax and was wondering the same thing. It is beyond heartbreaking.

[Jefferson23]

31. Pulls at your heart, absolutely. n/t

[dgibby]

36. Yep!

Same thing for tigers, polar bears, great apes, and all the other endangered species and their habitats.

It would appear that mankind will not rest until every river, ocean, rain forrest,and all their inhabitants die. We are the most toxic element on earth.

[JackDragna]

18. Tip of the iceberg.

I seriously doubt we're being told how bad it really is. I have some idea - I live in Louisiana and hear things from family and friends. It pains me to think of how many people I know who will go into destitution.

[laughingliberal]

19. ...

very sad. :(

[Drunken Irishman]

20. God I totally missed the whale in that.

[democrank]

21. Heartbreaking

[gleaner]

22. I read this and I literally got sick to my stomach ....

The more I read and hear, the worse I know is to come. This and the other things going on around us right now made me think of a poem by Yeats. I will put a link to it in case anyone else would like to read it. http://www.mcabee.org/~lcm/lines/slouch.html

It can be taken with a religious connotation but it doesn't have to be, and that is not how I take it. One line stays with me above all others. "Things fall apart. The center does not hold."

We may lose these whales as a species. I'm sure we will lose even more. It is almost too unbearable to contemplate. I wonder if there will be any pieces left to pick up when it finally ends, if it ever does?

[TZ]

23. Can BP be charged with violating the endangered species act

with their negligence? I hadn't thought about it before, but thats basically what they've done in the gulf.

[Minimus]

25. Horrible news...

BP must be held accountable.

[City Lights]

26. ...

:cry:

[caseymoz]

28. I'm afraid just an oily taste of what's to come.

We have here a massive catastrophe, of epoch or eon proportions, and probably the peak of the species extinctions we've triggered.

[Drops_not_Dope]

40. yep

[salguine]

30. BP allowed samples top be taken from it? Really?

[bongbong]

34. The investigation

BP's internal investigation has already determined that the whale death had nothing to do with their spill.

[Captain Hilts]

37. Perhaps this, and the oil-enslimed pelican on the front page of the Wash Post will wake up folks. nt

[Spheric]

38. ...

:banghead: :cry:

[Uncle Joe]

41. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Robbien.

[femrap]

43. k and r

:mad: :puke: :wtf: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :hurts: :grr: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :scared: :scared: :hide: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[defendandprotect]

44. We need a total change in America's philosophy of life . . .obviously--!!

They've done nothing about Global Warming because of the privatized oil industry

and it's billions of dollars in propaganda to confuse and lie to the public --

quite successfully, in fact!!

And, evidently, completely shutting down off-shore drilling seems extreme to those

in charge -- whereas, most of us are hoping for alternative energy.

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN UNLESS WE NATIONALIZE THE OIL INDUSTRY!!

How many decades more are we going to go on this way?



And, just to add to the insanity, as I watched the hearings this morning, GOP Rep. Joe Barton

tried out the shining new GOP propaganda that this is a "shakedown of BP by government" ---

and the creation of a "slush fund" -- !!!

Democrats should respond to this crap immediately -- and would seem rather dangerous for any

Repug to be talking about "slush funds" given GOP history on that!!

[Doctor_J]

46. Yeah, this is going to kill more than just bird-sized stuff

It would be better to post links to something other than Fox, BTW.

[LeFleur1]

48. How Does Money Fix Something Like This? nm

[Robbien]

52. Sorry about that link

but late last night it was the only one available. A quick google search didn't have any others and I was too bumbed out about the devastation to do a thorough search. Just turned off the computer and had a glass of wine and sat and thought.

Here's one from CBS this morning:
http://cbs11tv.com/oilspill/dead.whale.oil.2.1756743.html

which also talks about the NOAA press release on the subject.

[keepCAblue]

49. Obama's $20 billion means nothing to this whale, or to the species. n/t

[alp227]

50. And there shall be many more dead animals to come. Sad. n/t

[EFerrari]

53. You'd think with all the research that has been done on whales

someone would figure out a way to drive them out of the area. Is that crazy?

I'm hating this so much. :(

[BrklynLiberal]

54. Sadly, this is merely the tip of the iceberg...

[time_has_come]

55. So many recs for this dead animal. Dead turtle, or engangered pelicans...

not so much.

Whales elicit a response.

[donheld]

57. .

:nuke: