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+--- Thread: Killer whale tragedy (/showthread.php?tid=1040)
Killer whale tragedy - Catherine - 12-08-2014
There has been a serious decline in the Southern Resident Killer Whales. They have already lost three this year and now a young pregnant female has been found dead. The report I heard on the radio said that her calf was full term.
http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/12/05/whats-killing-critically-endangered-whale?cmpid=tpanimals-eml-2014-12-6-whales
So far I haven't heard what the caused her death. It is heart breaking. We are watching a species disappear. If there are no live births and they keep dying, very soon they will all be gone.
RE: Killer whale tragedy - LPC - 12-08-2014
I'm very sorry to read this piece of news. I think the probable cause is mentioned in the article: "PCBs and other toxins polluting Puget Sound build up in the bodies of the whales, leading to increased illness and reproductive problems".
This is so sad. Humans (probably) to blame again.....
RE: Killer whale tragedy - platy - 12-09-2014
Cause isn't fully known yet, but as LPC mentioned it is thought that the build up of toxins may have caused the death of the baby causing an infection in Rhapsody which killed her. Not nice at all
http://us.whales.org/blog/colleenweiler/2014/12/rip-rhapsodySimilar reports are coming from Antarctica (namely at the moment McMurdo station) about the build up of PPCP's and sewage contaminating fish, clams, urchins etc which could then build up in animals that eat these things. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/03/soap-sunscreen-and-steroids-found-in-antarctic-waters-and-wildlife?CMP=share_btn_fb
Of course humans are to blame. Don't see many whales shampooing their hair
RE: Killer whale tragedy - LPC - 12-09-2014
(12-09-2014, 12:24 AM)platy Wrote: Of course humans are to blame. Don't see many whales shampooing their hairIndeed! Like button
RE: Killer whale tragedy - Tobi - 12-09-2014
We are putting far too many toxins into the oceans. What on earth caused us to start using the oceans as rubbish bins??
But of course, it is all about ill-managed 'excreta' of a massive population of human life, which eventually ends up in the oceans. Believe it -if someone somewhere was willing to spend a little more money, then there would probably not be such a crisis for marine life such as these Whales.
And it's a question of caring enough to do something about it.
RE: Killer whale tragedy - platy - 12-09-2014
I think that's the hardest thing. You're never going to get people to stop using PCPs and many people don't give a second thought to where they end up once you've used them.
The Antarctica article shocked me the most. You think of Antarctica as this pristine environment, relatively untouched by man. Yet you have these scientists just willingly and carelessly dumping their effluent into the surrounding oceans. These are supposed to be leading scientists. And then innocent beings like Rhapsody and her calf end up paying the ultimate price.
The research centre in Churchill, Manitoba might be the opposite end of the world, but they have no trouble recycling all of their waste water, including human waste.
RE: Killer whale tragedy - Catherine - 12-09-2014
Thank-you for finding follow-up articles. They do clarify things a lot.
It does look like it is human pollution that is the cause of Rhapsody's death and her calf. It is cheep and easy to just dump pollution right into the ocean. People in the city flush everything. They don't ask where it goes. The waste is dumped in the ocean(or lake) and we don't ask where it goes. People for years have thought of waste as somehow being gone once we dump it. We see the results in the whales and other marine life now. We don't realize that this will affect us too.
I don't know if we can save the Southern Resident Killer whales. It would have to be part of a change of behavior in a number of areas.
Why do our shampoos need such powerful chemicals. Simple natural products are the best and have the least impart on the environment.