{"id":869989,"date":"2026-10-04T01:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T01:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869989\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T01:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T01:42:10","slug":"scientists-search-for-answers-as-baby-whales-wash-up-dead-in-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869989\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists search for answers as baby whales wash up dead in Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"

PENINSULA VALDES, Argentina (AP) \u2014 Investigators in Argentina are trying to solve the mystery of baby whales washing up dead in unusually high numbers along the country\u2019s Patagonian coast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scores of the calf carcasses have been washing ashore around Peninsula Valdes, a major breeding ground for southern right whales<\/a> in Argentina\u2019s Chubut province. Hunted to the brink of extinction in the 19th and 20th centuries, the whales now gather in the peninsula\u2019s sheltered waters to give birth and nurse their young.<\/p>\n

Baby whales are washing ashore dead in \u201cunusually high numbers\u201d along the Patagonian coast. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking into the whale calf deaths based on 23 years of monitoring that we have of this same population. That\u2019s what allows us to say that this is an unusual event,\u201d said Marcela Uhart, a veterinarian with the One Health Institute at the University of California, Davis, who is leading the investigation as head of the Southern Right Whale Health Monitoring Program.<\/p>\n

The leading hypothesis is that the whale calves are suffering infections from marine bacteria that can enter their bodies through injuries inflicted by kelp gulls, Uhart said.<\/p>\n

For decades, the seabirds have pecked at whales surfacing to breathe, gorging on their skin and blubber. Adults learn to surface with only their heads exposed, keeping their backs underwater and out of reach of the gulls. Calves can\u2019t do that maneuver, leaving them vulnerable to attacks.<\/p>\n

Researchers, led by veterinarian Marcela Uhart, suspect marine bacteria infections, possibly from kelp gull injuries, are to blame. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The carcasses have been washing ashore around the gulf city of Puerto Madryn, including near the central waterfront where they alarm residents and tourists. Residents have reported hundreds of them, but researchers declined to give a death toll, saying that would become clear after the season ends around late November.<\/p>\n

Uhart and a team of biologists, veterinarians and park rangers have been searching the area for the dead calves from shore and with boats, planes and drones.<\/p>\n

The work is gruesome: They photograph and examine the bodies, racing against decomposition to collect skin and organ samples for testing at a veterinary school farther north, in the city of Tandil. Bacteria have already been detected in those tissues, but researchers are still culturing samples to identify the microbes and determine whether infection was the cause of death, she said.<\/p>\n

Scientists are also probing if warming sea temperatures, possibly linked to climate change, could be making the bacteria more deadly. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Even if bacteria are to blame, researchers must still determine why they have become so deadly this year.<\/p>\n

Changes in marine conditions like warming sea temperatures, potentially linked to climate change <\/a>or El Nino, could contribute to \u201cthis perfect storm where this bacteria is powerful enough to overcome the immunity of the babies and cause their deaths,\u201d Uhart said. \u201cSo to the extent that we can, we\u2019ll try to identify at least what factors may be triggering this event and making it so massive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right whales got their name from whalers who considered them the \u201cright\u201d animals to hunt because they swam slowly, stayed close to shore and floated when killed, according to the International Whaling Commission, a global body tasked with regulating whaling.<\/p>\n

The body of a dead Southern Right whale calf washed ashore on the coast of Peninsula Valdes in Puerto Madryn, Argentina, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Although illegal hunting continued into the 1970s, southern right whales have gradually rebounded since gaining international protection in 1935. But their recovery remains threatened by the same pressures facing whales worldwide: declining food supplies, fishing gear entanglements, oil spills and ship strikes.<\/p>\n

If losses on this scale recur, they could slow the population\u2019s recovery. By pinpointing what is killing the calves, researchers hope to find ways to protect the vulnerable population.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the cause relates to something that we are doing as humans, then we need to change that,\u201d Uhart said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to endanger these whales again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PENINSULA VALDES, Argentina (AP) \u2014 Investigators in Argentina are trying to solve the mystery of baby whales washing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1147,16834,79,34688,201,965],"class_list":["post-869989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-humpback-whales","tag-science","tag-whales","tag-wildlife","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}