Did toxic algae kill whales in Alaska

Officials from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say that algal toxins associated with warming surface waters could have been the reason behind the mass deaths of 44 whales in 2015 in the Gulf of Alaska.

A similar event happened in waters near the Canadian province of British Columbia around the same time and those whales that died were later found to have consumed algal toxins. Testing on the whales that died in Alaska waters we not possible because many of the whales had decomposed or could not be retrieved.

Researchers say that it is possible that the whales may have died as a result of collisions with vessels or infectious diseases.

The large numbers of whales, dolphins and porpoises found dead or stranded around the world’s coastlines each year are often helpless, and usually die within a few hours or days if not attended to in the right way. Help WDC’s strandings work by donating today.