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WDC2023-007 NMLC Release (16)

Seal Rescued in Marshfield Released Back Into The Wild

For Immediate Release, May 31, 2023 PLYMOUTH, MA - A young male grey seal that...

Norway ups whale kill numbers and removes whale welfare protections

The whaling season in Norway has begun on the back of disturbing announcements from the...
Image taken from an unmanned hexacopter at >100ft during a research collaboration between NOAA/SWFSC, SR3 and the Coastal Ocean Research Institute. Research authorized by NMFS permit #19091.

Southern Resident orca petition to list them under Oregon Endangered Species Act advanced

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted today to advance a petition seeking to protect...
Hysazu Photography

WDC and Conservation Partners Continue to Seek Oregon Endangered Species Protection for Southern Resident Orcas

On Friday, April 21st, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will determine whether the petition...

Stranded narwhal found in Belgium

On the evening of 27 April 2016, a narwhal was found on the banks of the River Scheldt, Belgium (more than 50 km from the sea!). The animal was in an advanced state of decomposition. It is a juvenile male of 2.9 m length (without the tusk). Its remains weighed 290 kg. It was autopsied on 28 April in a joint effort by the Universities of Ghent and Liège. The autopsy revealed that the whale probably died of starvation but also had a heart condition and possibly a thyroid problem. It is unclear why the whale was thousands of km from its usual home range in the arctic.

This is the first recorded case of a narwhal in Belgium. The skeleton of the animal will be taken into the collections of the RBINS. 

Historical records from Europe include one stranded on the Norfolk coast (UK) in 1588, one in the Firth of Forth (UK) in 1648, a female stranded in the River Elbe near Hamburg (Germany) in Feb 1736, a live stranding in Lincs (UK) in Feb 1800, a stranding in Yorkshire (UK) in 1806 (not yet confirmed), a stranding in Shetland (UK) in September 1808, a sighting off the Aberdeenshire (UK) coast in 1882, a female captured by a fisherman near a sandbank in the Zuider Zee (The Netherlands) in March 1912, and two females in the Thames Estuary (UK), one in Essex in Feb and the other in Kent in July, 1949, as well as two sighted off Orkney in June of that year. There have also been at least two records from the Baltic. 

Story courtesy of Jan Haelters, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS).