Rat Poison Ruled Out for Death of Whales
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- Kepano
- added this
What killed hundreds of fish that washed onto Niihau shores in late January and early February?
And could it have been the same thing that killed three humpback whale calves in the past few months?
Part of this ocean mystery appears to be solved.
This young Humpback calf washed onto Kauai shores on February 9th.
Some wondered if rat poison dropped in waters off Niihau might be to blame.
The poison was used to fight an infestation on Lehua Island.
"The one whale that was in better shape than others and we were able to harvest tissues, we did take a liver sample from that calf. And that liver sample showed no signs of difassinone, or no signs of the rodenticide within its liver," NOAA Marine Mammal Response Coordinator, David Schofield said.
One tell tale sign alerted scientists early on that the Kauai whale had been in poor condition.
"The more lice you have on a whale, the sicker it is. So this little calf being as young as it was had a lot of whale lice on it. So that suggests that it had some underlying problem for quite some time," Schofield said.
Schofield says three whale strandings this season are nothing to be alarmed about.
He says there have been as many as five in one season over the past decade here.
"We the scientists and the managers expect that you will see about a twenty percent attrition rate, or 20 percent of the animals will not survive to there first year of life," he said.
Tests were also conducted on monk seals off Niihau.
"The good news is we can look for difassinone or rodenticide in the urine and the fecal material of these animals and low and behold there was no difassinone or rodenticide within that material," said Schofield.
And could it have been the same thing that killed three humpback whale calves in the past few months?
Part of this ocean mystery appears to be solved.
This young Humpback calf washed onto Kauai shores on February 9th.
Some wondered if rat poison dropped in waters off Niihau might be to blame.
The poison was used to fight an infestation on Lehua Island.
"The one whale that was in better shape than others and we were able to harvest tissues, we did take a liver sample from that calf. And that liver sample showed no signs of difassinone, or no signs of the rodenticide within its liver," NOAA Marine Mammal Response Coordinator, David Schofield said.
One tell tale sign alerted scientists early on that the Kauai whale had been in poor condition.
"The more lice you have on a whale, the sicker it is. So this little calf being as young as it was had a lot of whale lice on it. So that suggests that it had some underlying problem for quite some time," Schofield said.
Schofield says three whale strandings this season are nothing to be alarmed about.
He says there have been as many as five in one season over the past decade here.
"We the scientists and the managers expect that you will see about a twenty percent attrition rate, or 20 percent of the animals will not survive to there first year of life," he said.
Tests were also conducted on monk seals off Niihau.
"The good news is we can look for difassinone or rodenticide in the urine and the fecal material of these animals and low and behold there was no difassinone or rodenticide within that material," said Schofield.
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pjacobs51
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Sometimes animals just die. But, I can assure you, there's a very good chance of human involvement somewhere down the line.
- 2 years ago
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pjacobs51
