The Detective of Northern Oddities

January 5, 2017 9:02 AM

When a creature mysteriously turns up dead in Alaska—be it a sea otter, polar bear, or humpback whale—veterinary pathologist Kathy Burek gets the call. (contains some descriptions of animal gore)

Burek recently in the news:

NOAA to examine dead humpback in Sitka Sound

Dead Sitka Sound whale probably killed by ship

Testing detects algal toxins in Alaska marine mammals

Cruise ship entered Alaska port with dead endangered fin whale on its bow

Few clues in ongoing mystery of Alaska whale die-off

What’s killing alaska’s sea otters?

posted by mandolin conspiracy (5 comments total)

Ten Southern Resident killer whales died last year in the Salish Sea. A year that was initially very encouraging because nine whales had been born. Now they are back down to 78 total animals. I wonder if the algal bloom got to them as well.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:15 AM on January 5, 2017

On an extremely tangential note, I just learned the Yiddish word for Abominable Snowman.

It is Der Yeti.

So if Burek comes across an Abominable Snowman that only speaks Yiddish, I can help.

It is also shneimentsch, which means snowman.
posted by maxsparber at 9:18 AM on January 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Mei's lost sandal. I had heard about the baby boom but not most of the deaths.
posted by tavella at 10:02 AM on January 5, 2017

That was a fantastic and deeply disturbing article. The health effects of global warming are going to be much more complex, and much worse, than we seen to be anticipating.
posted by MrVisible at 11:43 AM on January 5, 2017

When a creature mysteriously turns up dead in Alaska—be it a sea otter, polar bear, or humpback whale

For a second there I was thinking, "Wow, how decayed was it if they couldn't tell if it was an otter or a whale?"
posted by The Tensor at 11:07 PM on January 5, 2017 [1 favorite]