Animals

Again sperm whales in the Wadden sea died

In January there were at least 16 sperm whales from the North sea to be recovered. Now strandeten eight male animals at a single location in the Wadden sea. But the phenomenon is not new.

Hendrick Brunckhorst is a zoologist and Hydrobiologe. Life and death of living beings are for the speaker of the national Park Wadden sea of natural processes. “It belongs to biologically and ecologically,” he says loudly, while the Wind storms and the waves of noise, so that one can get without having to yell, barely able to communicate.

But the sight of eight dead sperm whales has also Brunckhorst taken: “they have such an impressive size. An animal still has a couple of Times breathed. It was about to Die. All the others were already dead.”

Aart whales in the Decomposition of a sperm whale at the 18.1.2016 in Bremerhaven

Only male whales in the North sea

Young bulls, nine to twelve meters long, quite close together – as they wanted to each other to protect locations in the Wadden sea, in an inaccessible Zone of the national Park Schleswig-Holstein, five miles South of Friedrichskoog.

“It is not uncommon, male sperm whales at this time of year in the North Atlantic,” said Brunckhorst, also the spokesperson of the Landesbetriebs for coastal defence, national Park and marine protection (LKN). “And you are always in a pack on the way.”

The global inventory is on a Million animals estimated. They are from the Azores, home to Portugal and in the Mediterranean. The female animals avoid waters below 15 degrees Celsius. The male looking for food and open up sometimes new habitats. “So the whales through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean,” says Brunckhorst. “The female animals would because of their smaller body surface in the Northern Atlantic ocean heat loss to suffer. Your energy balance is set up so that you are not in the North of Europe dare.”

But also male animals survive the excursion is not always. In past centuries strandeten sperm whales again in the North sea. This January dead there for a minimum of 16 sperm whales. Were found on the coasts of great Britain, the Netherlands and Germany.

Lack of food will give you sometimes to doom. They live on large squid. The North sea offers smaller varieties, but not in the shallow Places, where the deep diver to get lost.

Graveyard for whales: the Wadden sea

The shallow waters is also dead wrong, because it is the orientation of marine mammals using sonar to interfere. You can the exact depth of water, no longer capture. “In addition, the water carries your body weight. They land on a sandy ground, pushing the mass on the organs. In the recent cases can blood vessels and lungs performed have been,” said Brunckhorst. Cause of death was acute circulatory failure.

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Difficult Disposal

The carcasses of up to 60-ton sperm whales, who in January were found, are already disassembled. With tractors, they were brought ashore, then with excavators and Autokränen transported. On the beach cut Tierpräparatoren as the Dutchman Aart Walen first holes in the colossi. Fäulnisgase such as methane can then escape. Otherwise, the animals explode.

In part, they end up conducting research in veterinary and anatomy departments. The skeletons in museums or Zoos to marvel at. Or you are with the soft tissue in carcass-disposal sites, be burnt.

“The eight sperm whales are announced. Rather it would be me, I could have my son living whales Portugal show”, Andreas Schawe to understand. “However, we have the Entsorgungsauftrag for the Federal state of Schleswig-Holstein are therefore in the obligation,” adds the technical Director of the company Rendac. Since the container is only 6.5 meters long, the animals on the beach in pieces and divided in the operation according to EU-regulations seuchenhygienisch processed correctly: “Normally, carcasses as quickly as possible disposed of. When the whales pass, sometimes days,” said Schawe.

At 133 degrees Celsius and a pressure of three Bar, the Remains of twenty minutes, Stirring treated. “This leads to water, fats, into Biodiesel. From the meat and bone meal electricity is generated,” says Andreas Schawe the process of rendering. “The meal has due to its calories a high calorific value. In the power plant, the lignite added to the mix.”

Andreas Loi-Brügger of the Oldenburg Fleischmehlfabrik Kampe had in January, two sperm whales dispose of: “The Remains were in five inches large pieces and parts. It was hard work, because the tissue of the animal, with its tough layer of fat is difficult to divide the left.”

The meal will also be burned in cement works, the water in the sewage treatment plant. Have to worry about the citizens, why not: “At the Drucksterilisation all the germs.”