Large amounts of marine debris found in sperm whales stranded along the North Sea coast in early 2016

Unger, Bianca; Rebolledo, E.; Deaville, Rob; Gröne, Andrea; IJsseldijk, Lonneke L.; Leopold, M.F.; Siebert, Ursula; Spitz, Jérôme; Wohlsein, P.; Herr, Helena

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.08.027

Cited by 74 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…In particular, climate change can affect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans quite differently (Boyle & Keigwin, ; Cheng et al., ; Greene et al., ; Howard, ), which may explain the apparent refugial population of sperm whales in the Pacific Ocean during the last long glacial period. Further research on trends in abundance and health of sperm whale populations and protection from other anthropogenic effects such as pollution (e.g., de Stephanis, Gimenez, Carpinelli, Gutierrez‐Exposito, & Canadas, ; Savery, Wise, Falank et al., ; Savery, Wise, Wise et al., ; Unger et al., ), ocean noise (Mate, Stafford, & Ljungblad, ), ship strikes (Jensen & Silber, ), entanglement (Barlow & Cameron, ) and prey competition (Hucke‐Gaete, Moreno, Arata, & Ctr, ) should be top priorities to prevent loss of already depleted populations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demography or selection on linked cultural traits or genes? Investigating the driver of low mtDNA diversity in the sperm whale using complementary mitochondrial and nuclear genome analyses

et al. 2018

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Mitochondrial DNA has been heavily utilized in phylogeography studies for several decades. However, underlying patterns of demography and phylogeography may be misrepresented due to coalescence stochasticity, selection, variation in mutation rates and cultural hitchhiking (linkage of genetic variation to culturally-transmitted traits affecting fitness). Cultural hitchhiking has been suggested as an explanation for low genetic diversity in species with strong social structures, counteracting even high mobility, abundance and limited barriers to dispersal. One such species is the sperm whale, which shows very limited phylogeographic structure and low mtDNA diversity despite a worldwide distribution and large population. Here, we use analyses of 175 globally distributed mitogenomes and three nuclear genomes to evaluate hypotheses of a population bottleneck/expansion vs. a selective sweep due to cultural hitchhiking or selection on mtDNA as the mechanism contributing to low worldwide mitochondrial diversity in sperm whales. In contrast to mtDNA control region (CR) data, mitogenome haplotypes are largely ocean-specific, with only one of 80 shared between the Atlantic and Pacific. Demographic analyses of nuclear genomes suggest low mtDNA diversity is consistent with a global reduction in population size that ended approximately 125,000 years ago, correlated with the Eemian interglacial. Phylogeographic analysis suggests that extant sperm whales descend from maternal lineages endemic to the Pacific during the period of reduced abundance and have subsequently colonized the Atlantic several times. Results highlight the apparent impact of past climate change, and suggest selection and hitchhiking are not the sole processes responsible for low mtDNA diversity in this highly social species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demography or selection on linked cultural traits or genes? Investigating the driver of low mtDNA diversity in the sperm whale using complementary mitochondrial and nuclear genome analyses

et al. 2018

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“…It contains the locations of the sperm whale strandings in the southern North Sea in early 2016. These strandings have been well documented (Clemens et al 2016;Evans 2016;Unger et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016

Vanselow

Jacobsen

Hall

et al. 2017

International Journal of Astrobiology

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“…From macroscopic evaluation, all necropsied animals were judged to be in a fair to good nutritional condition. In 9/22 cases marine debris was found in the gastro-intestinal tract [ 49 ]. No evidence of fractured or recently healed tympanic-periotic bone complex was detected in the thirteen animals investigated (ID # 1, 4, 5, 11, 18, 20–25, 27, 28 [ 46 ]).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stomach contents were collected and analysed according to [ 48 ]. Marine litter was investigated according to [ 49 ]. In short: gastro-intestinal tracts were opened from stomach to anus and content was collected.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beached bachelors: An extensive study on the largest recorded sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus mortality event in the North Sea

et al. 2018

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Between the 8th January and the 25th February 2016, the largest sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus mortality event ever recorded in the North Sea occurred with 30 sperm whales stranding in five countries within six weeks. All sperm whales were immature males. Groups were stratified by size, with the smaller animals stranding in the Netherlands, and the largest in England. The majority (n = 27) of the stranded animals were necropsied and/or sampled, allowing for an international and comprehensive investigation into this mortality event. The animals were in fair to good nutritional condition and, aside from the pathologies caused by stranding, did not exhibit significant evidence of disease or trauma. Infectious agents were found, including various parasite species, several bacterial and fungal pathogens and a novel alphaherpesvirus. In nine of the sperm whales a variety of marine litter was found. However, none of these findings were considered to have been the primary cause of the stranding event. Potential anthropogenic and environmental factors that may have caused the sperm whales to enter the North Sea were assessed. Once sperm whales enter the North Sea and head south, the water becomes progressively shallower (<40 m), making this region a global hotspot for sperm whale strandings. We conclude that the reasons for sperm whales to enter the southern North Sea are the result of complex interactions of extrinsic environmental factors. As such, these large mortality events seldom have a single ultimate cause and it is only through multidisciplinary, collaborative approaches that potentially multifactorial large-scale stranding events can be effectively investigated.

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Large amounts of marine debris found in sperm whales stranded along the North Sea coast in early 2016

Cited by 74 publications

References 26 publications

Demography or selection on linked cultural traits or genes? Investigating the driver of low mtDNA diversity in the sperm whale using complementary mitochondrial and nuclear genome analyses

Demography or selection on linked cultural traits or genes? Investigating the driver of low mtDNA diversity in the sperm whale using complementary mitochondrial and nuclear genome analyses

Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016

Beached bachelors: An extensive study on the largest recorded sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus mortality event in the North Sea

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