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Even whales get the bends

London: Scientists have discovered that even whales can get the bends. The findings challenge long-held beliefs that marine mammals do not get decompression sickness, and provide potential evidence that underwater military sonar experiments may be of harm to them. Researchers in the U.S. found that the bones of sperm whales were pitted and eroded, suggesting they suffered from a condition similar to one in humans known as osteonecrosis. This type of bone death is typically associated with decompression sickness, which occurs when a diver surfaces too quickly. ``It therefore appears that sperm whales may be neither anatomically nor physiologically immune to the effects of deep diving,'' said the researchers in a paper published in Science. —

Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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