TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A number of biologists examined the carcasses of 25 pilot whales that were found dead on southwestern beach of Florida. They collected the samples from the sea mammals to investigate the cause of the recently-increasing whale death.
Wildlife officials completed necropsies on six whales among the group of 16 females and 9 males a day after they were spotted by boaters near Kice Island, Florida, said Kim Amendola, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as reported by Reuters. Amendola further said that the death of whales have no indication of interaction with human.
The whales were usually seen swimming around the shallow waters of Naples on Sunday, prompting a team of wildlife officials concerned about a spate of stranded whales, to mark the animals to better identify them.
Biologists have said the whales' close-knit social structure may be playing a role in the deaths. Pilot whales are social, deep-water species. They live in pods of 20 to 90 whales and typically will not leave ailing or dead members behind. The bonds are so strong that dead whales have to be cleared from beaches before others swimming in shallow waters can be guided out to sea.