did anyone see this

[woodnymph_O]

To see this saddens me today, especially since it's happening so close to where I live. The whales have come ashore and died or are waiting to.
Nymphy

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/nat_world/011505_APnat_whales.html

 

[yui]

To see this saddens me today, especially since it's happening so close to where I live. The whales have come ashore and died or are waiting to.
Nymphy

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/nat_world/011505_APnat_whales.html

How very sad, Nymph. I have always thought that the whales know something that we don't and worried that the end is seriously nigh when tragic things like this occur. Makes me cry – poor, poor creatures.

 

[nikkijames]

Very sad indeed

 

[shereads]

This happens so frequently, but so little is understood about why it happens. Last winter a young whale that had been separated from its mother ended up in dangerously shallow water down in the Florida Keys. Volunteers took turns standing for hours in waist-deep water (not all that warm in winter, even down here) to keep her afloat when she began losing her strength. She just refused to be saved. Wouldn't be led out of the shallows, wouldn't eat when a marine biologiest arrived to offer formula, but didn't appear to have anything wrong with her. They autopsy these animals and sometimes there's evidence of an infection or parasites that might interfere with echo-location, but sometimes they find nothing.

 

[R. Richard]

A sad story and all too frequent. I see stories of whales beaching themselves from time to time. It is not only the US and not only the east coast. Recently several whales beached themselves in Australia. It is really a pity that they cannot seem to find a clue as to why.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I won't look, it will only make me sad. There's nothing that hurts me more than animals suffering.

 

[shereads]

What is understood is that surfacing to breath and remaining buoyant isn't a passive function in whales and dolphins but requires some effort, like swimming. An animal that's too weak to stay at the surface must either drown, or find a shallow resting place. They can only stand the shallows for a brief time, because their bodies aren't designed to support their weight. Damage is done by the time one is found stranded, even if it looks healthy.

Has anyone ever heard of a stranded whale or dolphin that was rescued and survived more than a week or two?

(God, I know lots of useless trivia. This stuff, I learned from reading, "Behind the Dolphin Smile," by the former trainer of Flipper who became an activist against the capture of marine mammals. He saw more than one wild-caught dolphin that didn't adjust to captivity and drowned itself. They just go to the bottom of the tank and refuse to surface for air again.)