Some time ago, the news that the sperm whale ran aground on the beach, I believe everyone should still have the impression, in the face of this ten-meter-long behemoth, the staff after more than 20 hours of emergency rescue, finally helped it get out of trouble and return to the sea.
However, not long after the incident ended, at about 9:07 on April 28, another Taizhou fishing boat found the body of a whale in the waters near Ningbo, and the body had begun to emit a foul odor.
However, it is worth noting that as of now, the body of the whale floating on the surface of the sea has drifted away, which makes it difficult to confirm its identity, but there may only be two endings waiting for it, one is to run aground and drift to the beach, and the other is to sink to the bottom of the sea and become a whale fall...
What happens to whales after they die stranded?
The news of whale stranding deaths has been endless over the years.
The reason why the stranding accident occurs is either because the magnetic field anomaly causes the whale to get lost and mistakenly enter the shoal, and finally cannot swim back to eventually lead to the stranding; or because the whale itself suffers from disease, which causes it to be unable to locate normally in the sea, and eventually swims into the shoal to run aground.
There are many similar reasons, and Okawa will not repeat them here.
It is worth mentioning that if the whale is found in time after the stranding, the relevant personnel often have to cut open the whale's abdomen, which seems to have become a necessary process. If whale carcasses found in the waters near Ningbo in recent days are also stranded on the surface of the sea, and the relevant personnel will also cut open the whale's abdomen, then why should they do this?
Some suspect that the whale's belly may have been cut open for millions of dollars worth of ambergris.
It is understood that in Yemen, 35 fishermen found a sperm whale carcass near the beach, and after they worked together to cut open the belly of the sperm whale, they actually got a piece of ambergris weighing 127 kilograms from it, roughly estimated that the value of this ambergris was at least 10 million yuan or more, which was later reported by CCTV programs.
There's a reason ambergris is so expensive, and its production is very rare.
Generally speaking, ambergris can only be a very small species of whale such as sperm whale After eating squid and octopus, their jaws and teeth are difficult to digest in the whale intestine, and can only be wrapped in special substances secreted by the whale intestine, and finally become solid and discharged out of the body, or have been stored in the intestine, which is also ambergris.
Some people have speculated that under various coincidences, even sperm whales, about 1 in 100 can only form ambergris, which is why ambergris is so rare.
It is precisely for this reason that the whale's abdomen is cut open after stranding is not excluded from the possibility of taking ambergris. But in addition to taking ambergris, there is another more important reason, that is, to prevent whale explosions.
What is a Whale Burst?
Whale explosion is colloquially speaking, it literally means "whale explosion".
We all know that whales eat a very large amount, and some whales may encounter stranded deaths before the food is fully digested in the abdomen after eating.
Although the whale after stranding death can no longer digest the food in the abdomen, the microorganisms in the abdomen will multiply in large quantities, decompose and ferment these food residues, and in the process of microbial decomposition and fermentation, a large amount of methane gas will be generated, and the large accumulation of methane gas will make the whale's abdomen become bulging, like a balloon, which is very dangerous. Once the bulging abdomen ruptures, it is very likely that an explosion will occur under the action of the difference in internal and external pressure, which is the so-called whale explosion.
The physical impact of a whale explosion is probably at best similar to that of a gas can explosion, and as long as we are far enough away, we will not be affected by the impact force.
But what you need to know is that at the moment of the whale explosion, the whale's abdomen is fermented with various food residues, stinky blood and rotten flesh will be blown away, you can combine the taste of "septic tank" to imagine this unpleasant taste. Therefore, the most terrifying part of the whale explosion is actually its "magic damage", which is simply a biological weapon.
Therefore, in order to prevent the occurrence of whale explosions, when dealing with whale stranding accidents, the relevant personnel often do a good job of protection in advance, and use sharp tools to cut open the whale's abdomen to release the internal gas.
About whale falls
In addition to stranded beaches, whale carcasses floating on the surface of the sea may also sink to the bottom of the sea to form whale fall.
Whale fall is a natural phenomenon, refers to the whale after death the body sinks to the seabed, in the process of decomposition of the body by microorganisms, the production of a large amount of nutrients to feed the seabed organisms, it is precisely for this reason, the whale fall is also together with cold springs, hot liquid and called the oasis of deep-sea life.
There is a saying, "A whale falls, all things live", which means that the whale fall feeds countless lives on the seabed...