Recently in the news is the story of a 72-foot female Blue Whale that died off the California Coast and stranded in Ventura County. As unfortunate is the event, it has become a memorable and unique learning opportunity for so many people – scientists, reporters, tourists, teachers, parents, and children. From all walks of life, people learned more about this magnificent creature, the natural world, and their role in it. 

The life of this Blue Whale has ended, but it leaves us a learning legacy, so the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History offers this online porthole as worldwide community resource for all to learn about our natural world. 

As a member of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, the Museum is responsible for conducting necropsies for strandings in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County.

As a member of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, the Museum is responsible for reporting dead cetacean (whales and dolphins) and sea otter strandings in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County.

BASIC FACTS KNOWN AT THIS TIME

• The Blue Whale is a female sub-adult to adult about 72 feet long and weighs about 120,000–140,000 pounds.
• Age is about 3–5 years. The whale was not pregnant and was most likely not of breeding age.
• A necropsy revealed that the most likely cause of death was a ship strike along the backside of the whale. Date, time, and exact location the incident and death are unknown.
• Scientists were able to collect tissue samples were taken for biochemical and genetic testing.
• The skull and some of the broken vertebrae were harvested by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The Museum had hoped to collect the whole skeleton, but the bones were too badly damaged; mostly likely due to the ship strike.

BLUE WHALE STRANDING HISTORY IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY

It is normal for large sized ships and tankers to be in the Santa Barbara Channel, as it is normal for Blue Whale to be in the Channel.  This particular summer, there seems to be greater numbers of Blue Whale in the Channel possibly due to richer food sources.  Given the number of ships and Blue Whales, the Museum has reported only six other Blue Whale strandings since 1980.

WHERE IS THE WHALE NOW?

While the Museum is responsible for conducting necropsies on stranded marine mammals, the owner of a beach where a mammal has stranded is responsible for the disposal of the carcass. As the responsible owner, the County of Ventura has decided to bury the whale in the sandy beach where it is now located. Disposal of such large bodies is very difficult, and burial at the beach is a common practice. In 2005 Ventura County buried a whale along Faria Beach.  In April 2007, Santa Barbara County buried a Sperm Whale in a beach in just outside Isla Vista. The whale is buried in just outside Faria County Beach where the whale will undergo natural decay through bacterial action.

WHAT IS A NECROPSY?

A necropsy is a post-mortem examination and dissection of an animal’s body to determine the cause of death. This Blue Whale died from a ship strike along its dorsal, lateral side. This is evident from a 15-foot long haematoma (a.k.a. a bruise) and the extensive damage to the whale’s backbone. The size of the ship cannot be confirmed, nor can the date or location of the initial injury. 

There was evidence of shark bites, most likely post-mortem. The largest shark bite was about 12 inches, which indicates a shark that is about 20-feet long.

Tissue samples from the skin, tissues and blubber were collected; and measurements such as length, girth, and blubber thickness were taken. Tissue samples can help with genetic studies when they are collected before too much decay has occurred. The necropsy team was unable to collect fecal and urine samples, and stomach contents as that part of the whale’s body was inadvertently damaged. Usually fecal samples and stomach contents help researchers see if domoic acid poisoning was involved in the creature’s death.

The samples and data from these necropsies are shared with a national network of researchers. Because of their size and their lives in the water, much of it at significant depth, it is difficult to conduct biological studies on marine mammals. Stranded whales have, therefore, long been a primary source of information about these animals, and much of what we know about their anatomy, physiology, and even behavior is derived from this data. The results will be available in about a month or perhaps later.

A necropsy team usually involves multiple agencies working together to obtain the most amount of information. This team was led by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH) with assistance from the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute (CIMWI) and the Marine Mammal Center (MMC)

SBMNH Paul Collins, Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Krista Fahy, Associate Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Michelle Berman, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Mike Caterino, Curator of Entomology CIMWI Sam Dover, Chief Veterinarian and Executive Director Greg Cocklin, Director of Operations MMC (Sausalito Office) Frances Gulland, Director of Veterinary Science

TIMELINE

The necropsy team did an amazing job working with Adobe CO in Ventura and Specialty Crane in Santa Barbara. Together this team excavated, necropsied and buried a 72-foot Blue Whale in 72 hours. This is probably the fastest successful necropsy on the South Coast.

FUN FACTS ABOUT BLUE WHALES

• Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) are the largest animals that ever lived on the planet.
• They occur in all oceans.
• They may reach up to 85 feet. in length and weigh up to 150 tons.
• The heart of a blue whale is about the size of a VW beetle and weighs 1,000 pounds or more.
• The aorta (main artery) of a blue whale is 9 inches in diameter, about the size of a dinner plate.
• Blue whales breath through a blow hole located on top of the skull. The blow hole is about the size of a garbage can lid.
• Blue whales have not teeth. Rather, they have 260-400 fringed plates of baleen (a fingernail-like materials) hanging from each upper jaw.
• Blue whales live almost entirely on krill, small (1-2 inch), shrimp-like zooplankton. A blue whale may consume up to 8,000 pounds of krill per day.
• Blue whales feed by taking a huge quantity of sea water into its mouth and expelling it through the baleen plates, straining out in the process the krill found in the water.
• Blue whales are slow breeders. A female typically gives birth to a calf every two to three years.
• A calf nurses for about seven months, drinking 100 gallons of milk daily and doubling in size during that period. The mother’s milk contains 35-50% milk fat.
• Until they began to be hunted, there were quite common, with several hundred thousand individuals worldwide. Today, it is estimated that there are between 5,000 and 12,000 blue whales, our local population is between 2,000-3,000 animals.

For more information about Blue Whales go to www.acsonline.org.

MARINE MAMMAL STRANDING NETWORK

Marine mammals strand for various reasons including biotoxins, illness, separation from mother, entanglement in fishing gear, injury, and natural causes.

Marine mammals are protected by federal law. It is illegal for unauthorized person to disturb, handle or feed them. It is also illegal to collect, possess or obtain parts of marine mammals from dead strandings.

To respond to marine mammal strandings, volunteer stranding networks were established in all coastal states and are authorized through Letters of Authority from the NMFS regional offices. Through a National Coordinator and five regional coordinators, NMFS oversees, coordinates, and authorizes these activities and provides training to personnel. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is responsible for dead strandings of whales, dolphins and sea otters. 

What should you do?

• Immediately call the proper agency.
• Only observe from a distance. 
• Do not approach, touch, or move the animal. Stranded marine mammals are WILD animals; they do bite and may carry diseases. Please do not add to their stress.

Who to call?

Dead Whales, Dolphins, Sea Otters
Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties

• Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
  805-682-4711 ext. 157

Live Beached Marine Mammals      

• Santa Barbara County
  Santa Barbara Marine Mammal Center
  805-687-3255
  
  
• Ventura County
  Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute
  805-567-1505
  
  
• San Luis Obispo County
  The Marine Mammal Center
  415-289-732