Argentina: concern around a mysterious slaughter of whales
At least thirteen whales have been found dead in Chubut province in just over two weeks.
Local authorities fear that these deaths are due to a potentially harmful red tide for humans as well.
AFP/Archivos
Text by: RFI Follow
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At least thirteen whales have been found dead in Chubut province in just over two weeks.
Local authorities fear that these deaths are due to a potentially harmful red tide for humans as well.
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With our correspondent in Buenos Aires
,
Théo Conscience
Each time the same tragic photos.
Lifeless southern right whales, their white bellies turned skyward, stranded on the coasts of the Valdés peninsula, in Argentine Patagonia.
In los últimos días aparecieron 13 ballenas francas muertas en Chubut y el @ICB_Argentina estuvo trabajando en la zona junto a otras organizations e informó que se están tomando muestras para necropsias y muestras de agua para saber cómo y porqué fallecieron.
📷@ICB_Argentina pic.twitter.com/9pZ4v3Ss9W
— Greenpeace Argentina (@GreenpeaceArg) October 3, 2022
Two new corpses were still discovered on Monday, October 3, and were added to the eleven already found since September 24.
Fernando Bersano, director of Fauna and Flora for the province of Chubut, says he does not remember having ever seen “
such mortality in such a short time.
»
Potentially toxic red tide
The concern is all the greater as none of the whales showed any sign of malnutrition or traumatic injury, which leads scientists to suspect an environmental factor.
According to the Argentine Whale Conservation Institute (ICB), the priority is to determine if these cascading deaths are not due to a red tide, that is to say the proliferation of microalgae potentially toxic to marine fauna. and for human beings.
Pending the results of whale autopsies and analyzes of water samples taken from the peninsula, local authorities have banned the collection, marketing and consumption of shellfish and seafood.
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