AI Summary
5 min readIn September 2021, a volcano erupted on the Spanish island of La Palma, a place where people have learned to live with volcanic forces. For three months, a new volcano named Tajogaite formed under people’s feet, wiping out entire neighborhoods and forcing nearly 7,000 people to evacuate. Two years later, as the island was still recovering, something else happened—something that came from the sea. A sperm whale, roughly the length of a bus, washed up dead on a remote black sand beach called Playa de Nogales. This is the story of what was found inside that whale, and what it meant for a community that had already endured so much.
The Necropsy and the Discovery
When the call came in about the stranded whale, Dr. Antonio Fernandez and Paula Alonso, wildlife veterinarians on a neighboring island, mobilized their team immediately. Time was critical: if the whale was alive, they might be able to save it; if it was dead, decomposition would limit what they could learn. The team flew to La Palma and descended the cliffs to the beach. The whale was already dead—a young male with no external signs of a ship strike, which ruled out the most common cause of death in the Canary Islands. The tide was coming in, giving them only about five hours to perform a necropsy before the body would be washed away.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (03:15) **Introduction: The Power of an Encounter with Whales** - Glynn Washington reflects on the humbling, transformative feeling of being near whales in the open ocean, setting up the episode’s theme of awe and mystery.
- 2 (04:24) **La Palma: A Volcanic Island’s Recent Trauma** - The story moves to La Palma in the Canary Islands, where a volcanic eruption in September 2021 devastated the landscape and community.
- 3 (08:40) **A New Event: A Sperm Whale Strands on the Beach** - Two years after the eruption, a sperm whale washes ashore on a remote beach, drawing a rapid response team to investigate.
- 4 (11:51) **Arrival at the Scene: A Bus-Sized Mystery** - The team reaches Playa de Nogales and finds the enormous, dead sperm whale, immediately ruling out a ship strike as the cause of death.
- 5 (15:18) **The Necropsy: A Dirty, Dangerous, and Humble Job** - The team begins the grueling, smelly process of cutting into the whale to find the cause of death, battling time and the elements.
- 6 (17:35) **The Race Against the Tide** - The team works for four hours, but the rising tide forces them to abandon the necropsy before they can find the answer.
- 7 (21:24) **The Discovery: A Hard Object in the Intestine** - As the team is about to leave, Dr. Antonio climbs inside the whale’s intestine and finds a hard, watermelon-sized object.
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Show Notes
On the volcanic island of La Palma biologists unravel a massive mystery. Is it a crime scene, a treasure or a dream come true? And in the town of Trinidad a grade school trip to the ocean is about to get beautiful, raw, and wild.
Whalecano
On the volcanic island of La Palma biologists unravel a massive mystery. Is it a crime scene, a treasure or a dream come true?
A huge thank you to Paula Alonso, and Dr. Antonio Fernandez for sharing your story with Snap!
Produced by Erick Yáñez, with help from Anna Sussman. Original score by Nicholas Marks. Translation by Elvis Di Marcantonio. Art by Teo Ducot.
The Trinidad Whale
In the town of Trinidad a grade school trip to the ocean is about to get beautiful, raw, and wild.
Special thanks to Trinidad elementary’s seventh grade class: Alana, Jolena, Xavier, Joda and Atticus. Thanks as well to the third grade class: Remy, Harriet, Emmett Bowman, Margie Cunningham and Emmett Bowman.
Big thanks also to The Marine Mammal Stranding network at Cal Poly Humboldt, Alison Lewis, Dr. Dawn Gulley, The Trinidad Rancheria, Ron Sundberg, Selena Rowan, Dessa Gunning, and Jessica Gravelle.
Produced by Sukey Lewis, original score by Dirk Schwarzhoff.
Season 17 - Episode 41
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