Five sperm whales beached on Texel and died

[Palinurus]

Source: _http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/01/83196-2/
and _http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/01/beached-sperm-whales-die-on-dutch-island-overnight/

Five sperm whales beached on Texel, rescue efforts stopped at midnight

January 13, 2016

Marine experts will on Wednesday morning assess what to do about five sperm whales which have become beached on the Wadden Sea island of Texel.

It is extremely unusual for so many whales to be in Dutch waters, a spokesman for the Ecomare marine centre told local paper Noordhollands Dagblad.

Efforts to get the whales back into open water on Tuesday evening failed and rescuers finally withdrew from the beach at around midnight. Two are thought to have died, news agency ANP says.

According to the island’s newspaper, Texelse Courant, the whales have beached near Den Hoorn, the most southern part of the island.

The area of beach where the whales are has been closed to the public, to minimise the distress to the animals.

Protocol

Whale expert Adrie Vonk told local broadcaster RTV Noord-Holland that he did not think the animals would survive. ‘They are breathing their last,’ he said. ‘It is dark, the tide is turning, they are being moved by the waves.’

The Netherlands has set up a special protocol to deal with beachings following the death of a hump backed whale which stranded on a sandbank near Texel in 2012.

The protocol states that efforts to save the animals will stop after they have been beached for more than 12 hours.

Two dead sperm whales washed up in the German Wadden Sea island of Wangerooge on January 8. They are thought to have been dead for some time.

Update

The five sperm whales which beached on the Dutch Wadden Sea island of Texel have all died overnight as expected, marine experts said on Wednesday.

The whales were spotted in difficulty close to the shore on Tuesday and rescue efforts continued until midnight, without success.

 

[Palinurus]

While I was posting the above, SOTT already happened to take notice of this event via another source (David Kellen, Lighthouse News Daily) I just discovered:

http://www.sott.net/article/310268-5-sperm-whales-die-on-Texel-beach-Netherlands

 

[Deleted member 11729]

:(

 

[Palinurus]

This sad story isn't completely finished yet:

Two more beached sperm whales found on Texel

Posted on Jan 14, 2016 by Janene Pieters

Two more dead sperm whales were spotted on Texel. One washed up near the ferry port, the other is still floating in the sea near the lighthouse. According to Ecomare, they belonged to the same group as the five whales that washed up on Texel on Tuesday, a spokesperson said to NU.

The beached sperm whale is on a shallow strip at the edge of the NIOZ-harbor. The other five washed ashore at Den Hoorn, on the other side of Texel. The animal still floating in the sea is expected to wash up later during the day.

According to Ecomare, another six dead sperm whales were found on the coast of Germany, also belonging to the same group. Ecomare will call in the coastal surveillance to keep an eye out for living sperm whales, so that they can be directed back to the sea.

Source: _http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/01/14/two-more-beached-sperm-whales-found-on-texel/

Similar story here: _http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/01/two-more-sperm-whales-wash-up-on-texel/

 

[Palinurus]

SOTT also carries an update although from another source (Expatica):

http://www.sott.net/article/310309-Update-2-more-sperm-whales-found-dead-on-Dutch-beach