Peter-Vincent Schuld

A cold Friday, the first day of December this year. A sperm whale has washed up on the beach near Domburg in Zeeland.
Presumably, the animal was still alive when it washed ashore, but once stranded, the male colossus could not return to the water and died. A tragic end to a special animal, which at 13.5 meters had not yet reached adulthood. After all, adult sperm whales can grow up to 18 meters long and weigh 50 tons.

Your reporter went to the scene, climbs a staircase on the dune pan, walks a bit on a beaten path through the dunes and then descends back to the beach a little later. About 800 meters away, a lot of people are standing around a hastily set perimeter around the mammal that is waiting alone on the beach to be dissected. Local residents, day trippers and disaster tourists flock to the animal to view and photograph it. Researchers from the University of Wageningen have also come to see one of the largest mammals in our animal kingdom. It’s a sad sight. It seems as if few visitors realize the drama that has taken place in the life of the animal before it has come to its end. Minor injuries are visible on the animal, possibly abrasions, from which some blood comes out.

Every year, many sperm whales migrate from around the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean to the far north to feast on giant squid, among other things. When they return to the south, it is mainly the young males who often show stubborn adolescent behavior.
Instead of swimming west around Great Britain, where the Atlantic Ocean is hundreds of meters deep,
they choose the eastern route and end up in the relatively shallow North Sea where they easily lose their way and can then get stranded. However, it still remains a mystery in part what goes on in the approximately 7.5 kilogram brain mass of these animals and why they make the navigational decisions they do.

Last Saturday, the dissection of the animal, which weighed about 30 tons, began. The creature, which was so impressive while it was still alive, was studied bit by bit by researchers from the University of Utrecht, scientists from Naturalis (an academic research centre and museum in Leiden) and employees from the University of Wageningen. Fish, worms but also remains of squid were found in the stomach.
Nevertheless, the animal was relatively thin, which may indicate a disease or other debilitation. Researchers have taken numerous samples to examine it more closely in the laboratories.

Although it is unfortunately not unusual for sperm whales to wash ashore, it is not that common in the Dutch coastal province of Zeeland. The last sperm whale to wash ashore was in Breskens in 1970. in January 2016, 5 of these majestic animals washed ashore on Texel. Three of them were still alive when they washed ashore, but rescue efforts proved futile and were abandoned. Unfortunately, the animals died.