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Young World
Journey gone awry
COMPILED BY R.KRITHIKA
A pair of humpback whales that strayed into a freshwater river is refusing to go back to the sea. Marine biologists have used a variety of methods — playing recordings of other whales, banging pipes, using a fleet of boats — to herd them back to the sea. The whales, on the annual migratory trip to their feeding grounds in the north Pacific, seem to have lost their way and headed towards Sacramento. Injuries caused by a collision with a boat are not healing and
concerned scientists are planning to use dart guns or syringes attached to poles to deliver antibiotics that may help. What will actually help is getting them back into salt water. The latest approach is to hose the whales with water to force them to react. If the whales like it, the spray of water will be used as a lure; if not, the spray will force them to move. Another cause for worry is that the whales’ skin is becoming rough and pitted unlike the normally smooth skin. Also the whales will not find their usual source of food — krill and plankton — in the freshwater river. News agency AP reported “Biologists would not estimate how long the whales could survive in the delta, but said tail-slapping behaviour,
known as ‘lobbing’, was cause for concern.”
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