Dozens of southern right whale calves have washed up dead on beaches in Argentina’s Valdés Peninsula. Chubut province says a bacterial infection is the leading hypothesis; authorities are investigating, with no evidence so far of a human-caused factor.
Mariano Coscarella, a scientist with Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council, told Página 12 the mortality rate was “fairly high.” Authorities cautioned that right whales die every year and the current deaths could also reflect natural population dynamics; mortality varies considerably between and within breeding seasons.
The suspected bacterium can cause systemic disease in southern right whale calves; similar outbreaks have also been observed elsewhere.
