Three lost pilot whales have probably died of cardiovascular failure on the coast of Lower Saxony after they were stranded. Experts at the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (Laves) assume this. The dead whales showed a good general condition during examinations, said spokeswoman Hiltrud Schrandt.
A carcass had already been discovered on Tuesday at the island of Juist. Another was spotted according to the administration of the Wadden Sea National Park on the Leybucht between Norddeich and Greetsiel (Aurich district). A third dead whale was recovered west of Borkum in the Außenems by a government ship.
The protected so-called common pilot whales (Globicephala melas) belong to the family of dolphins and occur, inter alia, in the northern Atlantic. They prefer to eat squid, which they capture in depths of several hundred meters. In the shallow North Sea, foraging is problematic. According to Laves data, the gastrointestinal tract of the animals was completely empty; neither food remains nor foreign bodies were detected.
Tissue samples of pilot whales are now being investigated further by the Food and Veterinary Institutes Oldenburg and Hannover. At the first examination, a Laves pathologist had found no internal or external pathological changes.
