Spaniards puzzled as whales go on suicide spree

In one of the most famous cases, a 70-tonne finback whale — an animal the size of a seven-storey house — was found on a beach in Orinon in north-western Spain.

Its reduced weight led to speculations that it was `anorexic’ and wanted to `commit suicide’.

Dozens of citizens fought for hours to save the 19.5-m whale, spraying it with hoses, covering it with blankets to protect it from the sun, andassisting excavators which dug a channel to help the whale return to the sea.

But, “to spray a whale run aground is like giving aspirin to a terminal cancer patient,” whale expert Alex Aguilar says. Out of water, the whale’s huge body becomes a mortal prison, crushing its lungs and suffocating it.

The reason for the finback whale’s agony was discovered only after its death: It had eaten around 50 kg of plastic, from bags to gloves.

Other pollutants, such as metals and chlorines, have also been found inside cetaceans which have run aground.

Stranded cetaceans are usually sick, Aguilar says. The illness may be linked to pollution or be due to natural causes.

Sick whales or dolphins lose their strength to fight currents and are carried ashore, according to experts.

A bigger mystery is, why healthy sea mammals also run aground, as has happened in Australia and New Zealand.

Scientists believe that the radar-like orientation systems of such whales may have been deranged.

The problems could be dueto different causes, such as noise from maritime traffic or military manoeuvers, anomalies in the shape of the sea bottom, or alterations in the earth’s magnetic field.

When the leader of a pod of whales loses its orientation, the entire group can run aground and die.

One thing, however, appears fairly certain: whales cannot reason on a level which would allow them to decide to go ashore to die. Such talk is nonsense, Aguilar says.