Unusually high number of whale calves wash ashore in Argentina

Scores of southern right whale calf carcasses have washed ashore around Peninsula Valdés on Argentina’s Patagonian coast. The peninsula is a sheltered breeding ground where the whales gather to give birth and nurse their young. [1]

Marcela Uhart, who leads the Southern Right Whale Health Monitoring Program, said the event is unusual compared with 23 years of monitoring the same population. Her assessment is based on the program’s long-term records. [1]

A team of biologists, veterinarians and park rangers is searching for dead calves from shore and with boats, planes and drones. The investigation is intended to identify what is driving the mortality event, but no cause is established in the available account. [1]

Southern right whales were hunted heavily in the 19th and 20th centuries and were brought close to extinction, according to the International Whaling Commission. The species later became associated with Peninsula Valdés as a breeding and nursing site. [1]

Gulls have long pecked at surfacing whales, but adults can limit exposure by keeping their backs underwater. Calves cannot use the same maneuver, leaving them vulnerable to attacks; the account does not establish that gulls caused the current deaths. [1]