Philippine Marine Debris, Plastic Waste Killed Cuvier's Beaked Whale

Summary: Philippine marine debris and plastic waste assured the death of a 15.42-foot- (4.7-meter-) long young Cuvier's beaked whale male March 16, 2019.

(left) Darrell Blatchley, owner of D' Bone Collector Museum in Davao City, with deceased young male Cuvier's beaked whale and the 88 pounds of plastic debris that killed him; (upper right) Darrell Blatchley during necropsy of Cuvier's beaked whale; (middle right) head of Cuvier's beaked whale; photos by Mary Gay Blatchley: D' Bone Collector Museum Inc., via Facebook March 22, 2019

Dehydration, emaciation and internal bleeding from Philippine marine debris and plastic waste are the causes of death of a young Cuvier's beaked whale off the Philippine Islands' Compostela Valley March 16, 2019.

The young Cuvier's beaked whale breathed his last breaths before 11 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time) off the southern Philippines' island of Mindanao. Darrell Blatchley, founding president and marine biologist at D' Bone Collector Museum Inc. in Davao City, counted 88.18 pounds (40 kilograms) of plastic bags and socks. He declared that "I was not prepared for the amount of plastic" and that "It was so bad the plastic was beginning [calcium carbonate conversion] calcification."

Blatchley explains internal effects upon digestive tracts as "The plastic had been there a long time. The stomach was trying to absorb it any way possible."

Temperate and tropical waters of all world oceans and seas, such as the Atlantic, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Pacific, furnish Cuvier's beaked whale with year-round mating opportunities.

Physically and sexually mature 18.04- to 19.03-plus-foot- (5.5- to 5.8-plus-meter-) long Cuvier's beaked whale females, as marine mammals, give birth to single calves after 12-month gestations. Cuvier's beaked whale newborn calves have dark upper-sides, light undersides, 6.56- to 9.84-foot (2- to 3-meter) head-body lengths and 551.16- to 661.39-pound (250- to 300-kilogram) weights. Cuvier's beaked whale calves, as marine mammals, ingest their mothers' milk and inhabit deep offshore waters with their mothers until weaned independence after the first year.

Cuvier's beaked whale populations, judged at 1,900 off western North America, 15,000-plus off Hawaii and 80,000-plus in tropical Pacific waters, juggle birthplace fidelity and regular migrations.

Physically and sexually mature littler females and larger males know 12.79- to 41.99-foot (3.9- to 12.8-meter) head-body lengths and 6,000- to 14,000-pound (2,721.55- to 6,350.29-kilogram) weights.

The Odontoceti (from Greek οδούς, "tooth" and κήτος, "sea monster") suborder member, labeled commonly goose beaked whale, logs goose-like sloping foreheads, small beaks and upturned mouths. The Cetacea (from Greek κήτος and Latin -acea, "belonging") order member manifests dark-eye surrounds; gray-chevroned chins; and pale, protruding lower jaws on heads one-tenth head-body lengths. The Ziphius cavirostris (from Greek ξίφος, "sword" and Latin cavus, "hollow" and rōstrum, "beak") genus and species member nets indented forward- and leftward-projecting blowholes and necks.

Georges (Aug. 23, 1769-May 13, 1832) Cuvier's  beaked whale offers white-stripped dorsal fins, retractable pectoral fins and notchless flukes respectively two-thirds, one-quarter and one-tenth head-body lengths.

Twenty-five- to 60-year life cycles produce oval, white-patched scars from cookie-cutter sharks (Isistius brasiliensis) and parasites and scratches from rival male lower-jawed, single-paired, 1.97-inch (5-centimeter) tusks.

Suction feeding, at 3-knot (5.56-kilometer) hourly speeds, by piston-like tongues and single-paired, v-shaped throat grooves queue up sea-floor cephalopods, crustaceans, debris, fish and squid as prey. Cuvier's beaked whale requires foldable rib cages that reduce air pockets and buoyancy, and 20-second breaths, to realize 137-minute-long, 9,816.27-foot- (2,992-meter-) deep dives beyond continental shelves. Longitudes 90 degrees North to 90 degrees South, latitudes 180 degrees West to 180 degrees East and 656.17-plus-foot (200-plus-meter) distances from ice edges sustain Cuvier's whale.

Stemming the Tide, McKinsey Center- and Ocean Conservancy-released 2015 report, targets Chinese, Indonesian, Philippine, Thailand and Vietnamese plastic waste, not cruise-ship, military and shipping-lane marine debris.

Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), drawn by Scottish natural history illustrator Archibald Thorburn (May 31, 1860-Oct. 9, 1935) from specimen in The Natural History Museum, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; A. Thorburn, British Mammals, vol. II (1921), Plate 46 (opposite page 76): Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

(left) Darrell Blatchley, owner of D' Bone Collector Museum in Davao City, with deceased young male Cuvier's beaked whale and the 88 pounds of plastic debris that killed him; (upper right) Darrell Blatchley during necropsy of Cuvier's beaked whale; (middle right) head of Cuvier's beaked whale; photos by Mary Gay Blatchley: D' Bone Collector Museum Inc., via Facebook March 22, 2019, https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2697243096968928&id=216407245052538

Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), drawn by Scottish natural history illustrator Archibald Thorburn (May 31, 1860-Oct. 9, 1935) from specimen in The Natural History Museum, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; A. Thorburn, British Mammals, vol. II (1921), Plate 46 (opposite page 76): Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48418780; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/21866206616/

For further information:

Bodnar, Wanda. 4 November 2014. "Cuvier's Beaked Whale - A Record Diving Mammal." Whalefish.
Available @ https://www.whalefish.org/single-post/2014/11/04/Cuvier%E2%80%99s-beaked-whale-%E2%80%93-a-record-diving-mammal

Cuvier, Georges (Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric "Georges"). 1823. "Article II. Sur Une Tête Pétrifiée de Cétacée d'un Genre Inconnu, Voisin des Cachalots et des Hyperodons, Trouvée sur la Côte de Provence." Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles, où l'On Rétablit les Caractères de Plusieurs Animaux Dont les Révolutions du Globe Ont Détruit les Espèces, tome cinquième, Ire partie: 350-352. Nouvelle Édition, entièrement refondue et considérablement augmentée. Paris, France; Amsterdam, Netherlands: Chez G. Dufour et É. D'Ocagne.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52149291

"Cuvier's Beaked Whale." American Cetacean Society.
Available @ https://www.acsonline.org/curviers-beaked-whale?

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Available @ https://www.bioexpedition.com/cuviers-beaked-whale/

"Cuvier's Beaked Whale." Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust.
Available @ https://hwdt.org/cuviers-beaked-whale

"Cuvier's Beaked Whale." New Bedford Whaling Museum > Exhibitions > Current Exhibitions > Whales Today > Biology > About Cetaceans > Species of Local Interest.
Available @ https://www.whalingmuseum.org/learn/about-cetaceans/species-of-local-interest/cuviers-beaked-whale

"Cuvier's Beaked Whale." NOAA Fisheries > Species Directory.
Available @ https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/cuviers-beaked-whale

"Cuvier's Beaked Whale." Save the Whales.
Available @ https://savethewhales.org/cuviers-beaked-whale/

"Cuvier's Beaked Whale." Whale Facts > Marine Mammal Species List > Cetacea - Toothed Whales (Odontoceti).
Available @ https://www.whalefacts.org/cuviers-beaked-whale-facts/

D' Bone Collector Museum Inc. 22 March 2019. "So in one week the world was brought aware of a whale the museum recovered that died due to 40 kilos of plastic in its stomach. . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2697243096968928&id=216407245052538

Duke University. 6 February 2019. "Beaked Whales' Incredible Diving Abilities Confirmed: Cuvier's Beaked Whales Go a Mile Deep, Hold Breath for an Hour." ScienceDaily.
Available @ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190206161440.htm

Fonseca, Catarina. 15 May 2017. "Cuvier's Beaked Whale Fun Facts." Terra Azul Azores Whale Watching > Education & Fun Facts > Toothed Whales (Odontoceti) > Cetaceans > Beaked Whales.
Available @ https://www.azoreswhalewatch.com/cetaceans/cuviers-beaked-whale-fun-facts/

Hays, Brooks. 7 February 2019. "Study Confirms Cuvier's Beaked Whale Is World's Deepest-Diving Mammal." United Press International > Science News.
Available @ https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2019/02/07/Study-confirms-Cuviers-beaked-whale-is-worlds-deepest-diving-mammal/6811549545685/

MacLeod, Colin D. "Cuvier's Beaked Whale Ziphius cavirostris." In: Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius C. Geist and Melissa C. McDade, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 15, Mammals IV: 66. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Merkle, Andreas; and Martin Stuchtey. September 2015. Ocean Conservancy. Stemming the Tide: Land-Based Strategies for a Plastic-Free Ocean. Washington DC: McKinsey & Company and Ocean Conservancy.
Available @ https://oceanconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/full-report-stemming-the.pdf

Paul, Deanna. 18 March 2019. "Whales Keep Eating Plastic and Dying. This One's Stomach Had 88 Pounds of Calcifying Trash." The Washington Post > Science > Animals.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/03/18/whales-keep-eating-plastic-dying-this-ones-stomach-had-pounds-calcifying-trash/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9e124cbfd0bc

Saplakoglu, Yasemin. 18 March 2019. "Dead Whale Washes Ashore with Shocking 88 Lbs. of Plastic in Its Stomach." Live Science > Planet Earth.
Available @ https://www.livescience.com/65020-whale-with-88-pounds-plastic.html

Shearer, Jeanne M.; Nicola J. Quick; William R. Cioffi; Robin W. Baird; Daniel L. Webster; Heather J. Foley; Zachary T. Swaim; Danielle M. Waples; Joel T. Bell; and Andrew J. Read. 2019. "Diving Behaviour of Cuvier's Beaked Whales (Ziphius cavirostris) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina." Royal Society Open Science 6(2): 181728. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181728
Available via The Royal Society Publishing @ https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.181728

Thorburn, A. (Archibald). 1921. "Genus Ziphius. Cuvier's Whale. Ziphius cavirostris. Plate 46." British Mammals, vol. II: 76-77. London, England: Longmans, Green and Co.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48418779

van der Land, Jacob; and William F. Perrin. 21 December 2004. "Ziphius cavirostris Cuvier, 1823." WoRMS World Register of Marine Species Database. Created 2004-12-21; checked 2008-08-20.
Available @ http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137127

Washington Post @washingtonpost. 18 March 2019. "There were grocery bags, plastic garbage bags, four banana plantation sacks and 16 rice sacks, all in the whale's stomach." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost/posts/10158585937132293