Do Whales Die of Old Age or Drown? - Dutch Shark Society

Scientists were able to establish the age of the bowhead whale by analyzing the remains of a harpoon lodged in the shoulder of a bowhead whale.
An Alaskan Indigenous hunting party captured the whale and arranged for the fragment to be sent to a lab. The analysis revealed that the harpoon dated back some 130 years!
How Do Whales Die Naturally?
It’s relatively rare for a whale to die a natural death, but when they do, it’s usually because of one of the following five causes:
#1 Beaching
Every year, around 2,000 marine mammals wash ashore. This phenomenon, known as cetacean stranding or beaching, happens for many reasons.
Some scientists, including Kevin Robinson, director of the Cetacean Research & Rescue Unit, believe there are “probably as many reasons for why whales and dolphins strand as there are strandings themselves.”
Injured or dead animals may be driven ashore by tides and prevailing winds. Healthy individuals may stray too far inland on a high tide and get caught out when the water suddenly recedes.
This type of beaching is most likely to affect whales that are compromised in some way.
Dan Jarvic of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, says a beached whale could be “sick or injured, senile, lost, [or] unable to feed.”
Once on land, the whales’ massive bodies literally crush their internal organs, causing them to suffocate.
On occasions, seemingly healthy whales become beached or even beach themselves.
Unless it manages to free itself, entangled whales suffocate and eventually sink.
Researchers believe that simple modifications could combat this problem.
Simon Miller of the Australian Marine Conservation Society explained, “Whale entanglement can be avoided to an extent by not setting high-risk fishing gear like lobster pots with long head ropes or gillnets in the areas through which humpbacks are known to migrate and congregate.”
What Happens to Whales When They Get Old?
It seems unlikely that whales die of old age. An elderly whale is more likely to become too weak to surface frequently enough to breathe, causing it to suffocate or drown.
It’s, therefore, more likely that drowning is the actual cause of death rather than old age itself.
Soon after death, the decomposition process causes gas build in the whale’s body. This enables it to float to the surface of the water, where apex predators like sharks, fish, seabirds, and other aquatic mammals happily tuck in.
As those gases disperse, the rest of the whale sinks to the ocean floor, where it becomes food for various bottom-dwellers, including crabs, hagfish, and sleeper sharks.
Nicky is a British adventurer and animal lover who spends her time exploring the natural world and writing about her experiences. Whether on horseback, underwater, running, hiking or just standing with a fishing rod in hand, she embraces everything her adopted home of South Africa has to offer.