SUICIDE BY WHALES

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 April 1938, Page 10

SUICIDE BY WHALES

WHAT IS THE REASON? The news that hundreds of whales hud perished miserably by throwing themselves against the cliffs of the Grotto, near Capetown, sounded unbelievable enough on the telephone, writes L. C. Green. As a. journalist I decided to convince myself personally of what hud happened, and half :.n hour later 1 was driving north to the place, 50 miles away. The sand and the pools between the cliffs, 1 found, were red with the blood of about three hundred dead or dying whales. Some lay motionless in the sun and their heavy breath made a noise like giant bellows. Circling very low above the carcases were birds of prey, eager to begin (heir feast.

1 spoke to a man from the neighbourhood who had seen it happen. The whales had emerged from the waves suddenly, in regular military formation, and began swimming rapidly towards the shore. The impact was so tremendous that numerous whales were killed instantly, while the others jumped frantically trying to get to the sandy beach. Not one attemptefl to regain the sea. With a tremendous effort, as though driven by a mysterious power, they hurled themseves forward. The man who saw it was doubtless one of the few to witness the agony of these whales, describ ed by the naturalists as “sham flesheaters.” And the phenomenon of their suicide is still very much of a mystery.

The news of the catastrophe hud attracted a. number of naturalists to the beach and 1 was able to interview Dr. G. W. Rayner, a biologist famous for his works on submarine fauna.

Dr. Rayner thinks- that, in spite of its name which would indicate (he affinity of the creature with the selachians, or cartilaginous fish, it is a real whale, even though a miniature one, but a mammal belonging to the great cetacean family. It appears to be related to the dolphin, of which the Greek writer Oppian wrote in the second century that they left the ejepths of the sea and threw themselves against the cliffs as soon as they felt their end approaching, in order “to render their last breath on firm land.”

s ’ However, Oppian’s statement*, was f disbelieved by the modern scientists, who considered it a legend. In 1927 a- somebody ’advanced the theory that t the variety of whale, which was said e to indulge in the same strange habit, ’- had in the meantime become extinct, > but shortly afterwards a school of e them became stranded on the coast of s Scotland. Several' scientists from i the British Aluseum then' studied the e phenomenon on the spot and were amazed to find that the cetaceans in question belonged to a species, the fossil remains of which were found diiring excavations in Lincolnshire.. ' There are great differences be- ; tween the “sham” whale and the I ordinary* whale. The former has large cfeam-coloured spots above the eyes \ and on (the flanks. But while the [ gf'umpus or killer-whale uses its pow- , erf’ul teeth for attacking fellowi creatures of a much larger size, there ; seems to be no explanation for the presence of such teeth iii the sham killer, which feeds solely on molluscs. NO GOOD EXPLANATION. We still lack a plausible explanation for the phenomenon of collective suicide, all the more mysterious as it

occurs at spots very remote from each other, like (South Africa, Zanibar, Tasmania. In 1928 a school of severallijipdred creatures staged a suicide, drama near .'the Cape. The natives tried, to save the Smallest of them, 1

pushing them back into flu.' sea, but as soon as they could use their flippers again, they returned to shore, repeating the manoeuvre several times. They .just would not be saved. Examination of (heir carcases revealed no (race of disease, nor were they fleeing before a storm, as the- sea was perfectly calm. There is a theory: according to which a school always follows its leader, oven though the- latter may have gone insane. This, however, is disproved since single whales were found dying at considerable distance from the others. Maybe we have to look for an explanation in the .‘act that vast stretches of the Cape IXminsula. including the strip of beach where this phenomenon took place, were once submerged. The creatures may have tried to find a. passage, the existence of which they knew by intuition, but which in reality had ceased to exist long ago. In support of this theory scientists quote the cr.se of eels which travel enormous distances at mating time. The young eels born near the Antilles being led back, by instinct to the European rivers whence their parents had set out. We may also quote the case of Columbia River salmon in the same connection. This fish surmounts the greatest obstacles in its travels, but never manifests similar collective suicidal tendencies.

Lemmings, too, those small rodents which undertake migrations at long intervals, plunge into the sea and get drowned because they cannot swim. But instinct impels them to return to the element, which was theirs before a biological whim had tinned them into terrestrial mammals. It. is not unlikely that in a remote geological past whales, 100. were, terrestrial mammals. Therefore, it we assume that they kill themselves in a desperate effort to regain their ancestral habitat, we may be as near. the truth, as many scientific theories.