Whales Often Stranded in Probolinggo Explained
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Kamis, 1 Januari 1970 07:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Probolinggo - Head of Probolinggo District Fisheries Department Dedy Isfandi revealed the region has been faced with the trend of having whales stranded or beached during the past several years.
“Based on our records, there are at least six events of varying types of whales getting stranded in Probolinggo,” said Dedy in Probolinggo District on Friday, June 8. He further said that cases of stranded whales took place in 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
The latest case of stranded whale was when a baleen whale was beached at Randutatah beach at the Paiton region on Wednesday, June 6. “I can recall the case where an orca was beached at Probolinggo back in 2005, unfortunately I could not remember its specific location,” said Dedy.
Dedy pinned it down to disorientation and analyzed that the whales that would get stranded at his region’s tropical shallow waters are often from regions of subtropical waters such as Australia, Japan, and Korea, “If they come from Australian waters, maybe the marine mammals entered Indonesian waters from Bali Strait up to Madura Strait and ended with having them stranded here.”
He further explained that the difference in climates between tropical and subtropical regions is also the cause of this unfortunate trend. Especially considering that the difference of temperatures between these regions are pretty distinctive with subtropical areas with 3-5 degrees Celsius and tropical areas with 30-35 degrees Celsius.
Regarding the other cause of disorientation, Deddy said that it might potentially be caused by what the whale’s consumed. He explained that plankton as the whale's main source of food might have caused the whale stranding considering that some plankton are dangerously hazardous such as the red tide phenomenon which was caused by poisonous plankton.
ANTARA