A necropsy was performed on a dead whale found attached to the bow of a cruise ship
The carcass of the fin whale found attached to the bow of a cruise ship in Vancouver recently has been dragged out into the open ocean and lowered to the seabed where it will become an “island of life.” Researchers say that the dead whale, which weighs as much as 70 tons, can help to sustain sea life for years.
During the necropsy, it was also discovered that the whale was likely sick; its stomach was empty and its blubber layer was too thin.
Fin whales (also called finback whales) are the second largest living creatures on the planet, smaller only than blue whales, and they are listed as an endangered species in Canada.
Ship strikes remain a very serious threat to many species of whales, including the North Atlantic right whales, of which only about 350 are believed to remain.
This fin whale, an endangered species, was reportedly the first whale taken by Iceland’s fleet in October, after the country elected to return to commercial whaling. (Ragnar Axelsson—AFP/Getty Images)
Right now, Iceland has more problems than you can shake a stick at: it’s recently suffered the largest (relative) banking collapse in economic history, and Vanity Fair says its people are hoarding cash and blowing up their cars for insurance money.
Bad international PR from commercial whaling probably isn’t helping matters very much either.
Iceland returned to commercial whaling in 2006. One of the last acts of the collapsed, outgoing government was to approve fin and minke whaling for five years. Now, new Fisheries Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson, says Iceland would like to ban commercial whaling as soon as next year.
Sigfusson, who is also the country’s finance minister, says of whaling in his country:
“I’m very concerned that such large-scale commercial whaling can be very risky in terms of total interests for Iceland.”
“I hope we get some understanding from the outside world that we were faced with the decision of a former government that we could not immediately overturn, at least not for 2009, on any substantial basis. But that doesn’t mean that such a substantial basis can’t be established.”
“I distinguish between the traditional small-town coastal whaling, and I fully support our right to do that in a self- sustainable way as we have always done. But commercial industrial whaling is another thing.”
Pretty sure I mentioned somewhere before that National Geographic used DNA testing to determine that blue whale meat was being sold in Japanese markets. Check out the clip below. Not only is the whale meat in question blue whale meat, it’s meat from a rare hybrid whale – the result of breeding between the two largest species of whales (blue and fin).
Scientists in the clip below mention they don’t know for certain why inter-species mating happens, but it could be simply because a same-species mate can’t be found.
Not a lot of news so far from the first couple days of the IWC meeting in Rome, but I did find this post that says Japan rejected the proposal to end – or to phase out – “scientific whaling” in exchange for whaling rights in her coastal waters.
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