Hunger, disorientation blamed for pilot whale mass stranding in Indonesia
Indonesian officials have announced their findings into the cause of the mass stranding and death of 52 short-finned pilot whales earlier this year.
They cited inflammation in the alpha whale’s echolocation organ as the cause of the stranding, and hunger and lung damage as the causes of death.
The Indonesian fisheries ministry has called for more necropsies to be done more regularly after strandings to better understand these events and inform policies on how to handle them.
Whale and dolphin strandings are common in Indonesia, which has the longest coastline in Asia and whose waters serve as both a habitat and an important migratory route for dozens of cetacean species.