Cetaceans

In January 2012, Joe Gaydos gave a talk at the North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando, FL, entitled, "Whale Tales: Cetacean Stranding Response and Medicine in the Pacific Northwest."

The talk is fairly technical (after all, the audience was all veterinarians), but Joe livened it up with a few videos of exploding whales.

Seriously. 

As the whales decompose, gasses build up inside the body cavity. If the pressure isn't released properly, the whale bursts. Sometimes this happens when someone cuts into the carcass (watch video). But it can also happen spontaneously, as with this whale being transported through a city in Taiwan (watch video). 

See all the exploding whale videos we collected on our YouTube channel.

Here are a few highlights from the full talk:

"Stranded marine mammal carcasses once were used as food and some of the first laws enacted in New England Colonies were to establish the ownership of beached whale carcasses. Later stranded marine mammals provided animals for museums, live displays and scientific information about little-known species. Today they still provide us with important data on marine mammals and marine mammal populations. Strandings help us to document range expansions for marine mammal species and provide details on marine mammal growth rates, age at maturity, gestation, reproductive season and longevity. Stranded marine mammals also help expand our understanding of marine mammal mortality factors including infectious diseases, toxins and human-caused mortality."

"Strandings have increased from an annual stranding rate of approximately 1.5 cetaceans/year from the 1930’s through the 1970’s to nearly 36 per year from the 1980’s through the current decade. 2 This trend of increased reported strandings corresponds to the formation of a formal stranding network and a heightened interest and dedication by the public and government agencies in reporting and documenting strandings."

"Marine mammals are important sentinel species that tell us about potential negative impacts on animal and marine ecosystem health and ultimately allow us to better understand, manage or mitigate anthropogenic stressors.3 Cetaceans are charismatic species that stimulate great interest in people. They have long life spans, are long-term coastal residents, feed at a high trophic level, and have unique fat stores that can serve as depots for anthropogenic toxins. They also are exposed to environmental stressors such as chemical pollutants, harmful algal biotoxins, and emerging or resurging pathogens, most of which can impact people. Understanding the health of marine mammals ultimately allows us to better conserve their populations, design a healthy ocean and improve and protect human health. Over the past several decades, many important diseases and toxins have been diagnosed in marine mammals that are important to marine mammal conservation and human health or tell us something about the health of our marine ecosystem."

"Veterinarians often play an important role in responding to live and dead stranded cetaceans. For dead animals, they are able to conduct or lead necropsies. When live animals strand, veterinarians help to assess condition determine the level of interaction required and ultimately help treat animals taken into captivity. In 2009 the National Marine Fisheries Service developed a protocol for responding to live marine mammal strandings. These protocols balance the need for standardized procedures while allowing flexibility to address specific needs of different situations for diverse species and habitats, as well as unforeseen circumstances. Veterinarians work with the NMFS and stranding networks to help determine (1) What are the species and group composition involved in the event? (2) Is the situation caused by human activities or a natural event? And (3) Are resources available to ensure the safety and welfare of both the animals and the responders? Intervention can be dangerous for the animals and human responders and response operations are only approved if it will be safe for the animals, stranding responders and the public."

Photo Credit: ShaneAH via Flickr: Creative Commons license