Drugs Link to Beached Whales

Behavioral changes due to metabolic biomagnification might explain beached whales and cetacean mass strandings

Director of Pharmacology at the Institute of Cetacean Research, Dr. Richard Mobey, is dismissive of popular theories explaining whale beachings, especially sonar.

Dr. Mobey suggests "chemical tides" of drug cocktails may be responsible for the large number of bizarre and inexplicable deaths of intelligent sea mammals, or cetaceans. Toxins and chemicals deposit in the blubber, by either direct absorption or ingestion, following biomagnification in the food chain.

Industrial chemical flows in rivers and estuaries eventually stretch for hundreds of kilometers along coastlines, coinciding with whale migration routes. 'Domestic' chemical cocktails, directly output from coastal human populations, reach continental waters via effluent. Natural organics, many of which scientists believed until recently could not naturally occur, add to this cocktail through geological events both on land and ocean floor.

"When cetaceans need to draw on their energy reserves a catastrophic release takes place. Large amounts of toxins and drugs are released into the bloodstream causing confused and aberrant behavior, hence the lack of obvious pattern in where and why they become stranded. Large distances might be covered before toxins release from blubber, eliciting an intoxication incident - the classic 'beached whales.'.

"These extremely intelligent and seemingly invincible creatures suddenly behave irrationally (from our viewpoint) making gross errors of judgment. If rescued they frequently continue to exhibit illogical behavior, for example, re-beaching.

Causes for beached whales, and cetaceans generally, include pollution, naturally occurring navigational errors, toxins, viral and/or bacterial diseases, geomagnetic aberrations, weather, El Niño, pursuit of/by prey, disease, echolocation error, social cohesion, human-related, oceanological conditions ... and 'intoxication incidents.'

Voluntary respiration dictates dolphins or whales losing consciousness must be brought to the surface and awakened to breathe again, or else will die, and dolphins are known to support unconscious mates at the surface.

A strong theory posits virally-incapacitated cetaceans seek shallows safe from predators, even pelagic (deep-sea species) availing lagoons for weeks while recovering.

It is conceivable cetaceans sensing such disease threats choose their fate on or near the beach rather than perishing in the deep, as the lesser of two evils.

Dr Mobey vented some vitriol on media-bathing colleagues. "The current fad suits some whale researchers trying to make a name for themselves by taking a popular idea - for example, blaming high-powered naval sonars. Some anecdotal 'evidence' shows how diametrically-opposed conclusions result from the same observation. Numerous incidents involving navy ships and whales suggest the mammals are actually attracted - not confused - by the sonar, some trying to mate with smaller ships.

He was equally scathing of the hype surrounding whale, orca and dolphin deaths around the world, likening it to ".. alien animal mutilation theories. These are simple whale beachings," Dr. Mobey emphasized. "The scientific community is being co-opted into coffee-table science by pseudo-scientific media to the detriment of solid research and analysis, let alone common sense."

Chemical Connection

Chemicals accumulated by the phytoplankton are greatly concentrated in Zooplankton, and further again in the bodies of upstream predators. Since whale diets include squid, krill, and fish in general, this complex food chain traces the path taken by chemicals to reach whale tissue though many mysteries concerning 'inputs' remain.

"Before focusing on contaminants in coastal waters, consider this interesting piece of solid research showing how complex the issues and how dangerous the assumptions. If you doubt contaminants from natural or anthropogenic (man-made) sources wouldn't greatly affect pelagic whales, Emma Teuten at Woods Hole determined MeO-BDE (Methoxylated ~Brominated Diphenyl Ether) in a True's beaked whale contained carbon-14 and thus was from natural (but indeterminate) sources. Though possibly entering the chain via deep-sea drilling, seismic or volcanic activity the odds vastly favor not only continental, but man-made, origins" Mobey said. "Yet we have a naturally 'contaminated' ocean feeder!"

"The highest feeding activity, or 'turnover,' occurs in warmer continental waters, so one would first look there. Collaborative research from fisheries departments in heavily industrialized countries are beginning to support the whale-drug theory.

Several prominent fisheries researchers in Australia, New Zealand and America are scrutinizing anomalous behavior in commercial coastal fish species near large cities. Tagged and monitored fish exhibit peculiar motion and atypical life signs during periods coincident with but lagging by 4-6 hours the traditional office hours, the deviance indiscernible at night and weekends.

Dr. Mobey said a colleague in the NSW (Australia) Fisheries Department has tagged this "the coffee spike". The coastline has three major metropolitan centers and has led this researcher back tracing to the urinals of home, commerce and industry. Highly caffeinated urine in massive quantities flows at these times, unaffected by sewerage filtration, straight into the ocean in huge quantities.

Caffeine, stable in the environment, is now a serious contaminant of the Puget Sound and other areas throughout U.S.A., contaminating groundwater and coastal waters. Because caffeine breaks down much more slowly than other chemicals, water treatment researchers have used it to mark the extent of effluent flow in rivers and ocean outlets.

Some scientists claim due to its water-solubility caffeine won't bioaccumulate. Others suggest that very property, coupled with its stability in "in the wild," is exactly what makes it available for ingestion.

Conceivably, whales' sleep is severely disrupted by pure caffeine ingestion in coastal areas of high concentration. Cetaceans, being conscious breathers, are believed to sleep half-brain at a time to avoid drowning.

"Sleep deprivation in mammals is, universally amongst species, conducive to hallucination, confusion and incapacitation," explained Mobey.

The Trigger?

The release mechanism, including such questions about the long delay for beached whales in remote regions, resides hidden in the stratified layers of blubber and the cyclic deposition and mobilization through feeding and fasting.

Referring to Mark Hindell's (University of Tasmania) theory of climate cycles affecting beachings, Mobey countered "His ideas and methodology are not in question. When pressed, however, he cannot pinpoint the mechanism. Cold currents and storm 'trauma' are the keys - exactly the trigger causing whales to draw on their reserves at an accelerated rate.

"Balaenoptera robusta (gray whale), due to its benthic feeding and coastal habitat, is a prime candidate to study bioaccumulation, though they don't beach as often," Mobey added. "They classically show how nature's design is caught short in the following recent scenario."

"El Niño caused Gray whale calf deaths when the new-born succumbed to cold because migration was delayed. The parent whales therefore, affected by loss of blubber during fasting, would also be drawing far more heavily on energy reserves than normal. Effect does not always immediately follow cause, but beachings would (eventually) be triggered in such circumstances.

Afterthoughts

Our coastal seas are a chemical cocktail of unknown extent. Many substances, such as Naringin, can extend the half-life of caffeine while others might enhance its effect.

The astounding toxicity of caffeine should not be overlooked, with an LD50 of almost 200 mg/kg. All this on the brain of a creature unaccustomed to mind-altering substances and performance-enhancing drugs.