MINKE WHALE DIES : SANDBAR : BOATS : STARVATION? : WHALE STRANDINGS DRAMATIC INCREASE

It appears that a Minke whale may have been starving, come close to shore, got stranded on a sandbar, and in it's struggle to get free, hit into a boat, throwing a boat occupant.. Here's the coverage by Newsweek.

NEWSWEEK : MINKE WHALES DIES AFTER BOAT COLLISION


Excerpt: However, vessel strikes, entanglement, and habitat disturbances remain significant threats to whales along the eastern seaboard.

U.S. maritime law, specifically the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, prohibits the harassment, hunting, capturing, or killing of marine mammals. The law includes specific rules for recreational and commercial vessels, requiring operators to avoid approaching whales within 100 yards and to reduce speed in certain areas to minimize the risk of collisions.


CBS NEWS: MINKE WHALE DEATH EXAMINATION RESULTS


Excerpts: The whale was 26 feet, 4 inches long and confirmed to be an adult female. The MMSC said the whale's body condition was thin. It also had "superficial cuts" externally and "bruising present in the blubber and muscle in the areas of trauma on the dorsal side." Blood was also present in the whale's lungs, according to the MMSC. .... "GI tract was empty with very little digestive material present, and a scant amount of fecal matter," the MMSC wrote. "Lesions were present in the stomach."

MALE SEA LIONS HAVE GOTTEN BIGGER OVER THE LAST FIFTY YEARS! UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA MARINE SCIENCE

Usually as a population grows, the sea lions get smaller.  However just published in Current Biology, is a report from University of California at Santa Cruz.

Excerpt:  It's counterintuitive.  You would expect that their body size would decrease as dietary resource competition intensified," said coauthor Paul Koch, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UCSC.

The number of California sea lions has increased dramatically since the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972.  In parts of their range, the sea lions may now be approaching the ecological "carrying capacity," the largest number of animals an ecosystem can support.

NEWS-UCSC EDU : 2024 SEA LIONS

Excerpt: "We found that the male California sea lions have expanded their ecological niche, which means they are now foraging on a more diversified group of prey and expanding the places where they are foraging on a more diversified group ogf prey and expanding the places where they are foraging," Valenzuela-Toro said.  "Apparently they are now going farther north than they used to.....

**** Scientists looked at the skulls of sea lions...

THE MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION ACT

MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION ACT : FWS GOV