Beaked whale strandings

Earlier this week, the Marine Connection received news of Cuvier's beaked
whale strandings off the SE coast of Spain, around the Gulf of Vera. The first two animals stranded alive, but later died. A third and fourth whale was found the next morning, already dead, making it four in total.

There have been reports of British military exercises in the area, HMS Kent departed Portsmouth on 16 January for short Mediterranean deployment with Gibraltar Squadron. HMS Kent is fitted with sonar 2050 which is similar to the US Navy 53C sonar that related to the beaked whale strandings off the Bahamas in 2000. The US navy have acknowledged that this submarine detection sonar was the cause of these particular strandings.

Initial examinations of the whales, carried out by a team from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canarias showed two of the whales to be female - one adult and possibly one sub-adult - and also one adult male. The adult female had signs of a possible relatively recent pregnancy but the calf has not been found.

Next week the team from the University will complete the lab analysis, and will hopefully be able to report the results.