Dead whales washed up in Germany? Stomachs full of plastic and car parts? We are receiving inquiries again.

Namely the following article:

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

Sperm whales found dead in Germany – stomachs FULL of plastic and car parts

The fact check

Sperm whales were allegedly found stranded on the coast of the North Sea on January 29, 2016. This is stated in the report cited. The article was combined with the picture shown of the two whales.

The article cannot be classified exactly. On the one hand it is true, on the other hand it is not.

Let’s address the “no” first:

The picture shows stranded whales on a coast. But these are not whales in Germany but whales that are stranded in a small town in England called Skegness.

Screenshot by mimikama.org
Screenshot by mimikama.org

There is even a video about these whales from “Channel 4 News”

Now let’s examine the “yes”

There really was an incident on this topic in Germany. On March 23, 2016, the “National Park Wadden Sea” issued the following press release:

Examination of the stranded sperm whales: Large amounts of plastic waste found in their stomachs - Environment Minister Habeck: "This reminds us to take more action against waste in the sea."

Press release from the Ministry for Energy Transition, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas in Schleswig-Holstein

Environment Ministers Robert Habeck and Gerd Meurs-Scher show pieces of garbage that were found in sperm whale stomachs. / Source: Wattenberg National Park
Environment Ministers Robert Habeck and Gerd Meurs-Scher show pieces of garbage that were found in sperm whale stomachs. / Source: Wattenberg National Park

Environment Minister Robert Habeck (left) and Gerd Meurs-Scher show pieces of garbage that were found in sperm whale stomachs. | © Claußen/LKN.SH

Large amounts of garbage were discovered during the examination of the sperm whales stranded in Schleswig-Holstein. Four of the 13 whales had large amounts of plastic waste in their stomachs. Although this was not the reason for the stranding and death of the animals, it reflects the situation on the open sea. Veterinarians and biologists suspect that the animals particularly affected would have suffered major health problems from the remains of the garbage. This became clear during the presentation of the study results on March 23, 2016 at the Multimar Wattforum in Tönning.

The most noticeable pieces of rubbish include the remains of a 13 meter long and 1.2 meter wide protective net used in crab fishing, a 70 centimeter long plastic cover from the engine compartment of a car and the sharp-edged remains of a plastic bucket. “These finds show us the effects of our plastic society: animals unintentionally ingest plastic and other plastic waste, suffer as a result, and in the worst case, some starve to death with full stomachs. This is an urgent reminder to take more action against marine litter. Schleswig-Holstein will intensively continue its efforts in this regard,” said Environment Minister Robert Habeck.

Sperm whale bulls ran aground - cause of death was heart and circulatory failure

The 13 whales were stranded on Schleswig-Holstein's North Sea coast in January and February. Professor Ursula Siebert, head of the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research at the Hannover University of Veterinary Medicine Foundation (ITAW), then examined the sperm whales in detail with her team. All animals were young, immature bulls, 10 to 15 years old and weighing 12 to 18 tons. They were all in good health and nutritional condition. The animals' hearing, which is important for orientation, showed no signs of severe acoustic trauma and the parasite infestation in the various organs was normal for their age.

All animals got into the shallow water of the Wadden Sea. Lying there on the bottom as the water drained away, the weight of their bodies compressed their blood vessels, lungs and other organs, causing the animals to die of acute cardiovascular failure.

In their stomachs Dr. Uwe Piatkowski, marine biologist from the Kiel GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research, and his students collected a total of over 110,000 squid beaks, as the indigestible upper and lower jaws of squid are called. 95 percent come from Nordic bait squid and European flying squid. These species are found primarily in the Norwegian Sea, the Barents Sea and the waters around Iceland, the main wintering grounds for sperm whale bulls. The beaks of 21,000 of the bait squids, up to 35 centimeters long, were found in one stomach, which corresponds to a live weight of around 4.2 tons.

Last feeding probably in the Norwegian Sea

Siebert and Piatkowski suspect that the dead whales had eaten for the last time in the Norwegian Sea. The first group with three animals probably only spent a short time in the North Sea, the second with ten animals probably spent a little longer. Bones and other remains of North Sea fish such as monkfish, cod, whiting and sea hare were found in some of their stomachs.

Since the beginning of the year, 30 sperm whales have been stranded alive or dead on the North Sea coast in Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Germany. In addition, killer whales, fin whales and minke whales stranded on the North and Baltic Sea coasts of Denmark and Germany. Harbor porpoises and a blue-and-white dolphin were found alive on the coast of Schleswig-Holstein in February, but all but one porpoise were returned to deep waters.

According to the two scientists, the causes of this increased occurrence are unknown. Unusually high temperatures and particularly strong storms recorded in the northern Northeast Atlantic in recent weeks may have pushed water masses from the Norwegian Sea southward into the North Sea - and the squid with them. It is possible that the sperm whales followed their main diet and, like other whale species, ended up in the North Sea. A plausible explanation, which has not been proven, however, since such ecological connections can only be proven with great effort.

However, Siebert and Piatkowski make it clear that the presence of sperm whales in the North Sea does not require any extraordinary explanation. All migratory animal species occasionally occur outside their actual distribution area. This allows them to continually explore new habitats and adapt to new conditions. Sperm whale strandings are also not a new phenomenon. Since the 16th century, more than 200 finds have been documented on the North Sea coast, including 21 animals that were stranded in the mouth of the Elbe near Neuwerk in 1723.

The sperm whales that occasionally occur in the North Sea are classified as part of the Azores population. The males of this population spend the winter in the North Atlantic. During their migration, individual animals mistakenly end up in the North Sea, which is too shallow and poor in food for them. Their acoustic sense of orientation makes it difficult for them to orientate themselves there.

Special exhibition on the stranded sperm whales in the Multimar Wattforum

Multimar Wattforum National Park Center . Gerd Meurs, head of the Multimar Wattforum and involved in the rescue and dissection of the animals, also wants to discuss the topic in a series of lectures. Qualified whale experts will present individual aspects of the whale strandings in detail from May. Environment Minister Habeck will address the literary side of the relationship between whales and humans on August 11th.

Habeck: “Recovery of the whales was a logistical masterpiece”

In January, three sperm whales were driven near Helgoland and in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park near Dithmarschen. Since they formed a dangerous obstacle to shipping, they were recovered by ships from the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration and by the Schleswig-Holstein State Office for Coastal Protection, National Park and Marine Protection (LKN.SH). At the Holmer Siel on Nordstrand, the animals were examined and dismantled by employees of the ITAW, the national park administration of the LKN.SH and other participants.

At the beginning of February, eight sperm whales washed up in the Wadden Sea National Park near Kaiser-Wilhelm Koog and two animals washed up on sandbanks off Büsum.
They were examined and dismantled by the same whale experts near Meldorf Harbor. “As many sperm whales as at the beginning of the year have never been driven in Schleswig-Holstein. The rescue was a master logistical effort, and I would like to thank everyone involved,” said Minister Habeck.

The skeletons of five animals went to the University of Gießen and Rostock, the Stralsund Marine Museum, the Hannover Veterinary University Foundation and the Öömrang Ferian nature conservation association in Amrum and are to be exhibited there.

The recovery, dissection and examination of the whales cost third parties around 250,000 euros. The costs are borne proportionately by the federal government (70 percent) and the state. In addition, at LKN.SH there are around 2,200 hours of work carried out by employees as well as the use of LKN ships and other equipment. This resulted in internal costs of around 160,000 euros for the LKN.

Sea trash background

In Schleswig-Holstein, the topic of “garbage in the sea” was a priority topic for the state government in 2015 and was supported by an intensive educational campaign and public relations work. “Our joint “Fishing for Litter” initiative with NABU, the support of plastic-free model regions and waste collection campaigns are already helping to draw attention to the real problem and bring about a rethink in society. “But we still won’t be able to solve the problem,” said Habeck. The cabinet has therefore just approved a comprehensive catalog of measures for marine protection, which should also address the source of the waste, in the manufacturing industry. In the future, the implementation of these measures will be coordinated at the federal level by a round table made up of various stakeholders. “Schleswig-Holstein will advocate for necessary legal regulations at federal or EU level, including a ban on microplastics,” said Habeck.

( Press release from the Ministry for Energy Transition, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas in Schleswig-Holstein)


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )