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| Mass Whale Deaths Off Argentina Baffle Experts |
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| Saturday, 03 April 2010 20:48 | |||
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Marine mammal experts are scrambling to uncover what has caused a mass death of baby right whales along southern Argentina’s Patagonian coast over the past three years. The International Whaling Commission has convened an urgent meeting near where more than 300 dead whales were found. “It has been established that a die-off like this was a completely unknown phenomenon and nothing like it has been seen anywhere else in the world,” said Argentine Whale Conservation Institute president Diego Taboada. Most of the fatalities have been among baby southern right whales, which have appeared to be severely malnourished. Populations of the species near Australia and South Africa have escaped the mysterious die-off, causing experts to wonder what is happening in the waters off South America. The species was hunted to near extinction until the population began to recover after a whaling ban was instituted in the 1930s. It’s believed only 10,000 to 12,000 of the whales exist today compared to an estimated historic population of 60,000. All rights: earthweek.com
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