 SICK SPERM WHALE DIES DESPITE VOLUNTEERS' VIGIL Palm Beach Post -- Friday, July 27, 2001 By: Kathleen Chapman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer FORT PIERCE -- Under the watch of volunteers who slept next to his small tank for several nights, the pygmy sperm whale rescued from an Indian River County beach Sunday died in captivity Wednesday night. An autopsy at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Thursday showed that the whale was sick with an inflamed pancreas and heart disease, but the exact cause of death is unclear, said veterinarian Gregory Bossart. Congestive heart failure much like human heart disease is common in stranded pygmy sperm whales. Nearly all of the whales that drift onto beaches -- about one each month in the Treasure Coast -- are gravely ill. Many are hurt more as they languish in the sun, chafed by the surf, Bossart said. Whales typically are born in the deep ocean, more than 30 miles from shore. They never see boundaries, never know that the ocean has an end or a bottom and can be frightened when confined in a small tank, Bossart said. This pygmy sperm whale, which caretakers at Harbor Branch named "Jeb" to draw Gov. Jeb Bush's attention to the need for a $25 million marine mammal hospital, seemed to have adapted surprisingly well to the tank, Bossart said. But there was never much chance of his recovery -- Bossart said he cannot remember a stranded pygmy sperm whale that was ever released back into the ocean. The volunteers who slept on cots near the tank, checking Jeb's breathing and pulse through the night, did so for reasons both noble and selfish, Bossart said. Caretakers wanted to comfort the dying whale, he said, and scientists study him for clues about pollution and disease in his environment. In past years, researchers have been disturbed by new types of cancer and viruses in the stranded animals and want to understand how polluted environments could affect humans, Bossart said. But even as researchers methodically probe the animal's body for the cause of death, they feel a loss. "You feel like you let them down," Bossart said. Copyright (c) 2001, The Palm Beach Post |