{"id":3531,"date":"2014-09-04T14:55:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T13:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dwhc.wp.hum.uu.nl\/2014\/09\/04\/collision-with-a-ship-most-likely-cause-of-death-in-stranded-rorqual\/"},"modified":"2021-11-09T14:43:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T14:43:18","slug":"collision-with-a-ship-most-likely-cause-of-death-in-stranded-rorqual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/2014\/09\/collision-with-a-ship-most-likely-cause-of-death-in-stranded-rorqual\/","title":{"rendered":"Collision with a ship most likely cause of death in stranded rorqual"},"content":{"rendered":"

Press release from the University of Utrecht<\/h2>\n

Researchers from the veterinary faculty at the University of Utrecht have found acute bleeding, consistent with bruising, in the 17m-long rorqual that stranded at the Dutch coastal town of Scheveningen. The presence of bleeding in various\u00a0tissues that were examined under the microscope demonstrates that, as previously suspected, the animal was\u00a0alive\u00a0when it received a hard blow, most likely from a ship.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"vinvis

Photo: Joop Fama<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

It became evident during the autopsy that the rorqual\u00a0had probably suffered a sudden death namely by the presence of food in the stomach (indicating that it had recently eaten)\u00a0and\u00a0the fact that it had\u00a0a good nutritional status. The \u00a0location and extent of the bruising are consistent with their being caused by collision with a ship. Examination of the liver under the microscope revealed a number of abscesses that\u00a0contained the remains of parasite eggs. The presence of fungal or bacterial pathogens in the abscesses is being investigated. It is possible that the pathology in the liver may have weakened the animal making it more vulnerable\u00a0to collisions.<\/p>\n

Additional findings<\/h3>\n

Although the advanced state of decomposition of the organs makes interpretation difficult, no abnormalities were seen in the lungs, heart, stomach, intestines or spinal cord. There was mild and probably subclinical mineralisation of the kidneys. Further tests on the gut contents will be performed by researchers from\u00a0IMARES, part of Wageningen University and Research Centre.<\/p>\n

On the bow<\/h3>\n

The broken vertebrae, state of decomposition and location of the stranding all suggest that the creature had been struck by a ship and carried on the bow into Dutch waters. In the last three years, a rorqual has been found on the bow of a container ship in the harbour of Rotterdam annually. Post-mortem was also performed on these animals and showed that, at is believed to be the case in this latest incident, the collision occurred while the animal was allive. Each case involved young rorquals and occurred in the summer months; whether or not this is coincidence or a developing phenomenon has yet to be seen.<\/p>\n

More information<\/h3>\n

For more information contact Marieke Veldman, Department of\u00a0Communication & Marketing, University of Utrecht Veterinary School, (030) 253 3430, m.m.veldman@uu.nl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"vinvis

Photo: Joop Fama<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Press release from the University of Utrecht Researchers from the veterinary faculty at the University of Utrecht have found acute bleeding, consistent with bruising, in the 17m-long rorqual that stranded at the Dutch coastal town of Scheveningen. The presence of bleeding in various\u00a0tissues that were examined under the microscope demonstrates that, as previously suspected, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[323],"tags":[],"diersoorten":[345,315,334],"class_list":["post-3531","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","diersoorten-fin-whale-en","diersoorten-mammals-en","diersoorten-whales-and-dolphins-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6102,"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3531\/revisions\/6102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3531"},{"taxonomy":"diersoorten","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwhc.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/diersoorten?post=3531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}