Short Finned Pilot Whales Are Mass Stranding Bay of Bengal Coastlines

Summary: Short finned pilot whales are making headlines Monday, January 11, 2016, to Wednesday, January 13, 2016, by mass stranding along Bay of Bengal coastlines.

short-finned pilot whale, western coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands, northeastern tropical Atlantic Ocean; Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012, 12:22: Cayambe, CC BY SA 3.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Short finned pilot whales are making headlines from Monday, January 11, 2016, to Wednesday, January 13, 2016, through mass stranding along the southeast Indian state of Tamil Nadu’s Bay of Bengal coastlines.

The mass stranding brings to public attention the tragic mystery of the marine mammal behavior, also known as mass beaching, which short finned pilot whales practice. It calls attention to prioritizing species-specific research since the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources considers the dolphin family member’s profile “data deficient.” Descriptions of data deficiency specifically defer to taxonomic uncertainty as to whether short finned pilot whales off northern and southern Japan represent separate species or subspecies.

Globicephala macrorhynchus emerges as the current taxonomy.

Deep, warm temperate to tropical waters north of 40 degrees South and south of 50 degrees North latitudes, furnish habitat niches for short finned pilot whales.

Bio-geographies give some distribution range overlaps with related long finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) even though the latter prefer cold temperate waters of the North Atlantic. Only short finned pilot whales handle the waters of the North Pacific Ocean, according to current scientific thinking, which excludes their presence from the Mediterranean Sea. Scientists nevertheless include the southern Red Sea within short finned pilot whale bio-geographies and exclude from native distribution ranges the saline, shallow, and turbid Persian Gulf.

The Sea of Japan joins the archipelago’s Pacific pilot whales into overlapping bio-geographies.

Ecologists know of climate change, entanglement in fisheries, marine mammal hunts, noise, pollution, and turbulence as twenty-first century threats to short finned pilot whale populations worldwide.

Major shipping routes through the Indian Ocean leave short finned pilot whales vulnerable to collisions with ships and reductions in food sources, of which squids predominate. Mammalogists mention uses for fresh meat, oil-producing blubber, and trophy skulls as making waters off Japan, Philippines, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent hazardous for the species. They also note exposure to such loud anthropogenic sounds as military exercises, navy sonar, and seismic exploration as disrupting short finned pilot whale behavior and sonar.

El Niño operates to separate the species from California-style market squid (Loligo spp).

Sightings prove unforgettable since short finned pilot whales swim in pods of 20 to 90 animals at speeds of almost 20 miles (32.19 kilometers) per hour.

Diving down to 1,650-feet (502.92-meter) depths qualify the short finned pilot whale for claims of one of the deeper-diving and second-largest species in the dolphin family. Adult females and males reveal respectively mature lengths and weights of 17 (5.1) and 24 (7.2 meter) feet and 3,300 (1,500) and 6,600 (3,000 kilograms) pounds. Female and male calves showcase maximum lengths of 4.92 feet (1.5 meters) and maximum weights of 132.28 pounds (60 kilograms), with dorsal fins age- and gender-specific.

It takes a lot to separate short finned pilot whales from pod leaders.

side (figure 1) and underside (figure 2) views of short-finned pilot whale under synonym of Globiocephala scammoni; top of head view (figure 3) shows spouthole; Charles Melville Scammon, The marine mammals of the north-western coast of North America, described and illustrated (1874), Plate XVI: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

short-finned pilot whale, western coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands, northeastern tropical Atlantic Ocean; Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012, 12:22: Cayambe, CC BY SA 3.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Globicephala_macrorhynchus_Tenerife_2012.jpg

side (figure 1) and underside (figure 2) views of short-finned pilot whale under synonym of Globiocephala scammoni; top of head view (figure 3) shows spouthole; Charles Melville Scammon, The marine mammals of the north-western coast of North America, described and illustrated (1874), Plate XVI: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/7732782444/; Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16226214; via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/marinemammalsofn00scam/marinemammalsofn00scam#page/n144/mode/1up

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 January 2016. "53 Short Finned Pilot Whales Leave 2016’s Bay of Bengal Mass Stranding." Earth and Space News. Wednesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/01/53-short-finned-pilot-whales-leave.html

Scammon, Charles Melville. 1874. The Marine Mammals of the North-Western Coast of North America, Described and Illustrated; Together With an Account of the American Whale-Fishery. San Francisco CA: John H. Carmany and Co.; New York NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Available @ https://archive.org/stream/marinemammalsofn00scam/marinemammalsofn00scam#page/n144/mode/1up

“Short-Finned Pilot Whale (globicephala macrorhynchus).” NOAA Fisheries > Species > Marine Mammals > Cetaceans.
Available @ http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans/pilotwhale_shortfinned.htm

“Short Finned Pilot Whale.” WDC > About Whales and Dolphins > Species Guide.
Available @ http://us.whales.org/species-guide/short-finned-pilot-whale

“Short Finned Pilot Whales.” Sea World Parks & Entertainment, Inc. > Sea World San Diego > Animals.
Available @ https://seaworldparks.com/en/seaworld-sandiego/animals/know-our-stars/short-finned-pilot-whales/

“Short-Finned Pilot Whale.” Arkive > Species > Mammals.
Available @ http://www.arkive.org/short-finned-pilot-whale/globicephala-macrorhynchus/

“The Short-Finned Pilot Whale.” Voices in the Sea > Species > Dolphins.
Available @ http://cetus.ucsd.edu/voicesinthesea_org/species/dolphins/pilotWhale.html