{"id":3289,"date":"2011-02-02T14:37:38","date_gmt":"2011-02-02T22:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mlmlblog.wordpress.com\/?p=3289"},"modified":"2011-02-02T14:37:38","modified_gmt":"2011-02-02T22:37:38","slug":"3289","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/2011\/02\/02\/3289\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Find a Dead Whale"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nate Jones<\/a>, Vertebrate Ecology Lab<\/p>\n

STUNNING, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Humpback and Shearwaters, Unimak Pass. Photo: NMML<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The magnificent power, the grace,\u00a0 the vigor of truly giant life.\u00a0 BUT, where do whales go when they die<\/em>??<\/p>\n

And, what about all those seals, sea lions, dolphins … heck, walruses<\/em>, even?!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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A Walrus carcass makes it into the 300m strip transect! Turns out even veteran at-sea researchers like USFWS Marty Reedy can still be surprised by new experiences. Photo: M. Reedy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What happens to them if they die at sea, as you might expect most of them would do?\u00a0 To explore this question, we might think to ask a marine scientist (naturally!).\u00a0 And, of course, there are<\/em> scientists that are studying dead marine mammals (you aren’t surprised, are you?).\u00a0 In fact, Moss Landing’s very own Gillian Rhett is focusing her MSc research on dead whales!\u00a0 Turns out, studying the afterlife of marine mammals is every bit as intriguing as chasing them in the living flesh.\u00a0 Scientists are\u00a0 still learning about what happens to these animals after they die, and it’s a remarkable story.<\/p>\n

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Scientists and crew (Nate Jones, among them) encounter a dead Sperm Whale, seen from flying bridge of USFWS R\/V Tiglax. Photo: N. Jones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nate Jones first saw this whale at about 2 km distance; a mysterious, looming chunk of something<\/em>, floating low in the water, unmistakably immobile in the snotty tumult that is a typical Bering Sea day.\u00a0 Whatever this thing was, it was large.\u00a0 And probably of animal origin; there were about half a dozen gulls swarming the area, looking for a free meal.\u00a0 Sure enough, a Sperm Whale carcass.<\/p>\n

You can see how tall tales are born on the high seas!\u00a0 Some of them are true…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nate Jones, Vertebrate Ecology Lab STUNNING, isn’t it?     The magnificent power, the grace,\u00a0 the vigor of truly giant life.\u00a0 BUT, where do whales go when they die?? And, what about all those seals, sea lions, dolphins … heck, walruses, even?!   What happens to them if they die at sea, as you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[310],"class_list":["post-3289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-vertebrate-ecology-lab"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"MLML Student Life","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}