34 cetaceans, dolphins but also a sperm whale and a whale, have died under mysterious conditions since the beginning of the year off the Tuscan coast in Italy, local authorities said Friday.
Only four days between July 29 and August 1, six dolphins of two different species were found dead, said Marco Talluri, spokesman for Arpat, the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Tuscany . Researchers should not receive until the end of August the results of the analyzes carried out on these animals. The dolphins were found very close to the coast dying, which allows veterinarians to make more reliable samples than the discovered decaying specimens at the bottom of the water.
An epidemic caused by temperature peaks?
"We analyzed the stomachs of eight specimens and found that they were half empty, as if the animals had not eaten for two or three days," said Italian biologist Cecilia Mancusi, an expert in the field. Arpat, quoted by the daily Il Corriere della Sera . "This important clue may indicate that the dolphins have not been doing well for some time and that this could be a measles-like virus, which has caused the deaths of hundreds of dolphins throughout Italy. 2013, "she added.
According to Gianna Fabi, researcher at the Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology of the CNR (Italian National Research Center) who studied a similar phenomenon in June in the Adriatic with the death of 14 dolphins in three weeks, it is unlikely to be plastic ingestion or pollution problem. "In both cases, we would have found traces in the body," she told Agi Agency. These could be epidemics "caused by a pathogen that would have proliferated due to peak temperatures or heavy rains that lowered the salinity of the seawater.
Another hypothesis: "a significant underwater acoustic pollution that would have altered the system of localization of these species". According to a study conducted between 2008 and 2018, an average of 18 cetaceans were found dead each year near Tuscany, testifying to the exceptional nature of the current episode. The area is part of the Pelagos Sanctuary for the protection of marine mammals created in 1999 by France, Italy and the Principality of Monaco. This 87,500 km2 reserve forms a triangle between the Giens peninsula in France, northern Sardinia and Fosso Chiarone in Italy.