Scientific probe to decode strandings

Chennai: Marine biologists and ecologists in South India were shocked on Tuesday morning to witness mass stranding of about 40 whales along Thoothukudi coast.

Marine experts told DC that Tamil Nadu coast has not witnessed such an unusual live stranding of mammals and demanded a high-level scientific investigation into the phenomenon.  

According to highly placed state fisheries department sources, so far there has been no such massive stranding of live whales in Tamil Nadu. In 1972, less than 10 whales washed ashore dead. Besides this, there has  been no case of live whales getting stranded anywhere in the Indian Ocean or Bay of Bengal. There are reference data in Tamil Nadu, sources said. “We have formed a team of marine biologists to investigate the phenomenon.”

Forest department and field station of Zoological Survey of India have been alerted”, a top fisheries department official said.

“Whale stranding is an uncommon event in India and the reason behind their stranding is a science that has to be explored. In most cases related to stranding mammals,  carcasses have revealed microplastics, filled in their gut leading to indigestion,” said T. Marudhupandi, scientist, Centre for Ocean Research, (National institute for ocean technology, Sathyambhama joint initiative Research Centre). Usually stranded whales are recorded with large volumes of litter or plastic in their gut and in this case, this observation will be crucial for the Indian sub continent.

Single whale stranding are due to injury and illness, however multiple whale stranding needs scientific approach. Another theory for multiple stranding is said to be due to their social organisation, where the distress call of an injured whale will make the whole pod to move towards the beaches, endangering them, he said.

“It was not regular stray or an incidental stray into the fishing nets but something to do with live science and this needs an immediate in-depth study and documentation”, said F. M. Jerold, animal welfare officer, Animal Welfare Board of India. Through AWBI we would ask the state for  basic details on the incident so that this stranding data can be documented for future studies,” he added.  

“In foreign countries, the incident would have been completely dealt with in a more advanced scientific manner. In the west, aerial and underwater photographs are taken during marine stranding and the skin samples are preserved for future studies. As on date, we do not have such facilities for marine animals”, said conservation scientist A. Kumaraguru of Biodioversity Conservation Foundation. There are workshops and fellowships funded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on marine biology and local biologists should be encouraged in such oceanic studies, he said.

Q&A with Dr R.P. Kumarran: ‘India lacks expertise in marine conservation’

Fishermen and district administration authorities in Thoothukudi on Tuesday woke up to something unusual along the polluted coast. They were stunned to see mass stranding of whales something that is mostly relevant to New Zealand, Mexico and Chile.  Manapad, a small fishing village in Tamil Nadu, has now entered the global map related to whale stranding. In an interaction with C. S. Kotteswaran, Chennai-based marine mammal consultant R.P. Kumarran, an alumnus of Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, Parangipettai (Porto Novo) with 28 years of research experience, shares the reason behind whale stranding and the truth about their migration and mass deaths.

Q What could be possible reason for stranding of whales and dolphins?
 Dr Kumarran:  Marine mammals (whales, dolphins, porpoise and dugongs – in Indian context) strand in single and or in groups varying from a few to several hundreds. To the best of my knowledge, there is no one universally accepted theory that possibly explains why they mass strand. Stranding is a complex phenomenon. Though mammals evolved in land, few sections have adapted to live in sea over a period of time. During this process, they have acquired a lot of information. That information is deeply embedded in their genes.

Similarly,  the migratory routes of marine mammals several million years ago were  different from today’s topography. For instance, the present Himalayas was under water. When those dormant recessive genes express themselves, these whales will be left with an older map for navigation. They follow those cues and strand themselves.  
 
Q As an expert, who served in state and national Committees in different capacities related to marine mammal conservation what is your suggestion in such a scenario to the forest and fisheries department and will autopsy and probe give us a lead in this case ?
Without proper scientific understanding, we further harass the animals under the pretext of saving them. Besides this, we risk ourselves to spectrum of potential pathogens while pulling them back into sea. The cost implications of such rescue operations are often alarming and beyond the means of our poor fishermen. Whatever the reasons may be, the result is death of those animals. Instead of dwelling into its details let us examine what insights we can get into the world of marine mammals from those carcasses.

Stranded animals can be best utilized for their scientific purpose rather than sending them back to sea. They will help us to find at least a few missing pieces into their puzzled world. I feel that any amount of posters, campaigns, stickers, t-shirts, websites, laws, stamps, projects and conferences will remain ineffective unless guided by scientific attitude, firm commitment by all the stakeholders and backed by strong political will. Incidents like this mass stranding give us an opportunity to reappraise our commitment towards marine mammals’ conservation. Instead of pondering over why whales strand, it would be beneficial and timely to focus on why marine mammals continue to strand.
 
Q How equipped is our country to handle such cases ?
Stranding is a natural phenomenon.  The scientific community is behind pinning down the factor for stranding. It may take even several decades to find it.  Who knows - by the time we find them probably a few species of aquatic mammals will become extinct like the Chinese River Dolphin. It is too naive to take our terrestrial expertise to manage the marine resources something similar to letting carpenters perform root canal treatment.
 
Q How sensitive are whales to pollution ?
 Heavy ship traffic, underwater earth quakes, underwater acoustic experiments, viral outbreak, polar reversal, a toxic cocktail of different industrial pollutants are among the associated factors with mass stranding.  Rampant use of xenobiotics (man-made compounds with no background concentration) such as DDT for agriculture and vector control purposes will ultimately find their way into the ocean. These compounds are highly persistent and lipophilic (fat liking) and gets stored in large reserves of whale’s fat (blubber). Protracted period of accumulation interferes with their natural enzymatic pathway.
 
Q Is this the first time such a large-scale stranding reported in India. Is  there adequate research and studies on marine mammals ?
 In India, during the last 200 years there were four mass stranding,  including the present event. However, there is ample scope for qualitatively improving our observations. With our indifferent attitude, we either treat them like a pet animal or totally ignore them from the main stream of research and conservation.

Government says they are protected under Indian Wildlife Act of 1972.  What is the scientific basis to bring marine mammals under Indian Wildlife Protection Act? Are we giving equal attention to all the listed species in terms of funding, research infrastructure and manpower development? Is there any scientific mechanism to assess the quantitative and qualitative output of our efforts? How many museum specimens have we collected in the last 40 years after declaring the Wildlife Act? How many qualified marine biologists represent India in International Whaling Commission meetings? How many marine scientists are involved in the process of preparing national documents for various international conservation efforts such as CMS, IUCN and CITES? All these are questions await answers from the state and central authorities.
 
Q How significant is marine conservation ?
 Seventy-one percent of the earth is covered by oceans. It shapes our climate. The marine biodiversity is at least 10 times higher than their terrestrial counter parts. There are more than 26 species of marine mammals spread across 2.02 million square km of Indian EEZ occupying different levels in food chain. We compete with marine mammals for valuable fishery resources that is accounting for 5.4% of India’s agricultural GDP (1.1% of GDP). Marine mammals play an inevitable role for close to one million active fishers in the country.