![]() ![]() And they carry tons of carbon in their massive bodies, down to the depths and safely away from Earth’s atmosphere. These falls also provide generous offerings of nutrients for deep-sea communities. ![]() In the ocean, “whale falls,” or carcasses of big whales that come to rest on the seafloor, support huge communities of scavengers including various fish, sharks and worms. Ecological benefitsīenefits to people past and present aside, stranded marine carcasses are crucial for many wildlife communities, the study’s authors argue. Image by McCurdy, James G., 1872-1942 / IMLS via Flickr ( CC BY 2.0). A Native American woman wrapping her share of whale meat in a mat at Neah Bay in Washington state, U.S. These are the ones that are most visible in our literature research through time,” Quaggiotto said. ![]() “So we moved from provisioning ecosystem services to cultural and scientific ones. From the 18 th century, stranded carcasses became more of a scientific fascination, with naturalists describing new species based on stranded individuals, and researchers today studying stranded cetaceans to understand ocean health and how human activities may be impacting the animals. Since the 11 th century, stranded cetaceans on English coasts came to be called “royal fish,” their meat kept only for the wealthy and their bones used to make art, the study found. Certain groups, such as the Fuegians of the Patagonian coast, and the Māori in New Zealand, held cetacean strandings in high regard, viewing them as bounties offered by nature to be shared with the communities. Historically, Indigenous peoples, including the Inuit living in the Arctic, salvaged meat, bones and other parts from stranded carcasses. Archaeological evidence from Spain, for example, suggests that human ancestors consumed the meat of stranded whales in prehistoric times. The researchers reviewed available peer-reviewed literature on how humans historically interacted with stranded cetaceans, and found 27 studies describing a range of interactions. “And so we started thinking about what were the value of these strandings for humans in the past.” “Strandings have always been there, and humans have always been in contact with strandings,” Quaggiotto said on a call. Benefits for our ancestorsĬetacean strandings are hardly a new phenomenon. ![]() Image by Sue & Danny Yee via Flickr ( CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). “Quaggiotto’s work helps recenter our view of these carcasses, looking at them as benefits and bounties rather than problems to be disposed of as quickly as possible.” A stranded whale in California. “Whale strandings have been the focus of wonder and awe for hundreds of years,” Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont and author of the book Whale, who was not involved in the study, said in an email. These benefits should prompt us to rethink how we manage beached carcasses today, Martina Quaggiotto, an ecologist at the University of Stirling, U.K., and lead author of the study, and her colleagues, argue. Human societies historically viewed cetacean carcasses that washed ashore as important sources of food or as conduits for cultural and scientific knowledge - not as nuisances that must be removed, the study found. The result: large chunks of whale flesh rained down on curious bystanders and crushed a car.īut in removing dead, stranded cetaceans like whales, dolphins and porpoises from beaches, we may be overlooking the several environmental benefits they offer, according to a study recently published in the journal Ecosystem Services. In 1970, one infamous removal plan involved blowing up a 14-meter-long (45-foot) sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus) in Oregon, U.S., with half a ton of dynamite because it was too big to be hauled away. Then, government agencies set about removing the carcass from the beach. In many reported strandings, the next steps look quite similar: where possible, biologists and veterinarians examine the carcass and conduct a necropsy to try and figure out why the mammal may have died. What happens when there’s a dead whale on the beach?
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