Scientists remain puzzled over the stranding of a killer whale on Kauai this week after a necropsy found “;no smoking gun”; and showed its organs appeared to be healthy.

    HPU Students Study Beached Kauai Whale

   

 

HPU students and scientists are working to find what caused the Orca to beach itself on Kauai’s Brenneke's Beach.

 

 

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Hawaii Pacific University professors and students sliced 700 pounds of tissue from the 18-foot male orca that was found at Brennecke's Beach on Kauai and euthanized Wednesday.

“;What we learned so far is that there was no smoking gun as to what killed this animal,”; said Kristi West, assistant professor of biology at HPU. “;In general, most of the organ systems looked surprisingly good, considering that the animal was emaciated and had ribs showing when it came to shore.”;

The whale — estimated to be a young adult weighing 3,000 pounds — was buried on Kauai after biologists harvested its 350-pound skull, eyes, teeth, samples of bone, spleen and blood for analysis.

Testing is being done at HPU under a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Tissues also are being shipped to laboratories across the country for study, West said.

Researchers will be looking for signs of infection such as swollen lymph nodes, unusual coloring or hemorrhage, she said. They also will check for possible stress that could have caused the whale to fall ill or might have weakened its immune system, said Brenda Jensen, associate dean of HPU's College of Natural Sciences.

The whale's stomach and intestines also will be opened.

It is unclear whether the whale was exposed to sonar technology. When a 15-foot Cuvier beaked whale died after stranding itself on a beach on Molokai on July 28, environmentalists blamed it on the Navy, which has used sonar to find and track submarines. Navy officials said there was no evidence that sonar caused the whale's death.

Findings from an extensive research project this summer on the effect of sonar on marine mammals will be released in December.

Unlike humpbacks — thousands of which migrate to Hawaii annually from icy feeding grounds off Alaska, Canada, Russia and Japan to mate and breed — killer whales are rarely seen in the islands. A researcher conducting vessel surveys here for nine years has spotted only one orca, she said.

About 250 orcas are thought to roam in waters up to 200 nautical miles from the state and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, West said. Killer whales are found worldwide with a majority residing in cooler waters. Females can live up to 90 years, about 30 years longer than males.

The last killer whale stranding here occurred in April 2004 on Lanai.

“;There's a lot of interest in what we are going to learn from this killer whale this week, because it's possible that there is something going on that is affecting such a small population to see two of them come up within a five-year period in Hawaii,”; West said.

HPU graduate student Jessica Aschettino, 28, who is helping with the project, said the experience has been invaluable. “;We are really excited to have been a part of it, and even more excited to keep working and find out everything that we can possibly find out from this animal,”; she said.