INTRODUCTION
A stranding occurs when animals die or become weakened at sea and are brought passively to shore by wind and wave action (Perrin & Geraci, Reference Perrin, Geraci, Perrin, Würsig and Thewissen2009) where they are often found by people. Marine mammals, both cetaceans and seals, are commonly stranded onto beaches and other coastal areas. Throughout history stranded whales have fascinated people and questions about the reasons why they strand have always arisen (Perrin & Geraci, Reference Perrin, Geraci, Perrin, Würsig and Thewissen2009). Since ancient history, coastal human populations have been familiar with the presence of cetaceans, and probably their first approach to a cetacean was through strandings. Myths and legends have arisen as a result of strandings’ events (Constantine, Reference Constantine, Perrin, Würsig and Thewissen2009) but scientific information only started to be collected from early modern times.
A traditional source of information for the study of cetacean distribution has been the compilation of strandings’ lists, especially in regions where historical records have been collected on a regular basis (Kinze, Reference Kinze1995). This is particularly true in the North Atlantic where stranding records have been documented continuously since the 16th Century (e.g. Kinze, Reference Kinze1995; Pierce et al., Reference Pierce, Santos, Smeenk, Saveliev and Zuur2007; Barthelmess & Svanberg, Reference Barthelmess and Svanberg2009), reflecting general public interest in large whales and other cetaceans ashore. Also, whereas the remains from a stranded whale did not leave traces in history, both the material and the spiritual culture it inspired have (Barthelmess, Reference Barthelmess2003).
In mainland Portugal, direct contact of local fishing communities with cetaceans have been known since the 12th Century through whaling and whale use (Brito, Reference Brito2008, Reference Brito, Brito and Evans2009) and this interest continues over the centuries with several zoologists dedicated to this subject in recent times. Nevertheless, compilations of observations and records are still sparse. Only at the beginning of the 1980s did dedicated studies and surveys occur (e.g. Teixeira, Reference Teixeira1979; Sequeira, Reference Sequeira1988) and systematic methodologies have been followed only since the 1990s for coastal populations of cetaceans. Also, characterization of cetacean communities along the Iberian shore is still poorly described in terms of species abundance and distribution and it is limited to a few sources (e.g. Brito et al., Reference Brito, Vieira, Sá and Carvalho2009). Considering this, and given the lack of research in historical records for the Portuguese coast, we developed this retrospective research to historically characterize stranding events and to make available long term data for future research.
Our objective was to document cetacean species presence over time along the mainland coast of Portugal through the use of historical written records of strandings. We will also address the evolution of the historical records in different perspectives such as the description detail, image content and scientific accuracy. When possible we will establish relationships between strandings and local fishing communities and the general public, with a particular focus on the contribution of early zoologists. This study shows historical relationships between these stranded animals and people, and is relevant both to the history of science as well as giving an important contribution to modern day cetacean studies.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Historical stranding records were obtained from several Portuguese national archives including the ‘Vasco da Gama’ Aquarium (Lisbon), the University of Coimbra, the Sea Museum (Cascais), the University of Lisbon, as well as from the national stranding database of the National Institute for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity and local newspapers.
In this study we focus only on stranding data from mainland Portugal. We only present data on specimens that stranded ashore dead or dying, but not those resulting from whaling activity or directed captures. Specimens collected for museums or of unknown geographical origin are also not presented even though these are also available in some sources.
The data analysed ranges from the 12th to the 20th Centuries. Our cutline during the 20th Century was the year 1977. From 1977 onwards the data began to be collected systematically with the implementation of a strandings’ national network which had a profound impact both in the number and the detail of the records. These records are available but are not considered in the present work and have been the object of other studies such as Sequeira et al. (Reference Sequeira, Inácio and Reiner1992) and Sequeira et al. (Reference Sequeira, Inácio, Silva and Reiner1996).
RESULTS
Strandings along the centuries
We found 38 records of cetacean strandings from the year 1526 until 1977 with different types of information attached to each event (Appendix). Most commonly stranded species were sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus, and fin whales, Balaenoptera physalus.
Most historical stranding information is available for the 20th Century (Figure 1), but before that nine events were recorded. Throughout this period of time, more detailed descriptions were made by the different researchers but geographical localization is always present (Figure 2).
Fig. 1. Number of cetacean strandings: (A) by Century (N = 38); (B) by decade in the 20th Century (N = 29).
Fig. 2. Geographical location of strandings on the Portuguese coast, with reference to species and centuries: (A) from the 16th to the 19th Centuries; (B) from the early 20th Century to the late 20th Century.
16th to 19th Century strandings
In the 16th century there is only one record of a large whale (Soledade, Reference Soledade1705). The author describes in Areia Branca (Peniche) the stranding of a large whale with ‘30 cubits length and a corpulence similar to an 80 ton ship. The tail was 20 palms wide and in its mouth fit two men standing’.
In the 17th Century records of strandings are absent, and in the 18th and 19th Centuries only three strandings were recorded.
From these historical records most strandings were of large whales, both sperm and baleen whales (Appendix) and only one mass stranding was noticed. This mass stranding refers to ten sperm whales on the Algarve coast in 1784 (Figure 3A). The author (Sande, Reference Sande1784) was present at the location and described through paintings the unusual mass stranding event. These paintings are ahead of their time because they include the detailed description of the place where the strandings occurred. The accuracy and detail of the location map is remarkable and unusual for the 18th Century and is indicative of the curiosity and natural interest of its author. The painting of the individual (Figure 3B) could be of one of the ten individuals that stranded ashore or it could be a compound representation of the species. The painting clearly shows the unique feature of the sperm whale, its lower jaw and other features such as the sex, the teeth, the flippers and flukes. Although it is not a very faithful representation of the species there was an attempt to document the size of the individual using a rudimentary scale. On the other hand there are a number of unclear characteristics such as the shape of the flipper and whether there is a second fin or if it represents an injury or even an exposed internal organ.
Fig. 3. Watercolour representing (A) the location of a mass stranding of ten Physeter macrocephalus and (B) the representation of an individual of this event in 1784 by Sande.
Another historical reference should be highlighted (one fin whale in Cacilhas in 1723) (Figure 4) as it was worthy of a newspaper article where it is stated (Anon, Reference Anon1723): ‘The big fish that entered this harbour last week, is of an unknown species. Some say it is a Bufalina, which the French call Soufleur, meaning blower; others say it is a certain species of balea, that the Dutch call Kapeku; but its features are different from other known fish. It is described here in this newspaper, for the curious ones, a brief description of the fish and its measurements (…) This fish was eighty-seven palms of length and forty-three palms of thickness (…) in the thinnest part started the butt, horizontally instead of vertically like other fish, with four palms of length and seven of width. The butt finishes in two ends like a swallows with the extension of eighteen feet. The head was remarkably big’.
Fig. 4. Representation of the Balaenoptera physalus that stranded in Cacilhas in January 1723.
On 8 January 1782 another stranding event caused admiration and curiosity among the people of Aveiro. A judge issued a document stating that it was ‘a monstrous fish usually called spermaceti that was 20 palms wide’. From the whale a total of 46 barrels were obtained: six barrels of oil from the head and 40 barrels of oil from the body (Anon, Reference Anon1945). Two centuries later, in 1945, a different author (Anon, Reference Anon1945) analysed this event and concluded that it was indeed a cetacean and not a fish as it was initially described due to the insufficient coeval knowledge. The description was accompanied by a drawing (Figure 5) in which several characteristics were explained in detail and this allowed a reconstruction of the event and identification of the species. Although the image itself is not accurate the supplementary details are extremely helpful to understand the significance of the event.
Fig. 5. Representation of a Physeter macrocephalus that stranded in Aveiro on 8 January 1782.
On 18 February 1896, a large whale measuring approximately 22 m long was entangled in a fishermen's net. The whale pulled the vessel frightening the crew who later described it as ‘a terrible enemy that was trying to swallow them whole’. This was witnessed by the locals gathered on shore. The national newspaper stated what the fishermen saw (Anon, Reference Anon1896): ‘(…) a black figure similar to a ship hull, that expelled water like a fountain (…) some of the most courageous men in the village approached the monster, encountering a scene of horror. (…). The five men within the ship were exhausted and terrified and couldn't separate the vessel from the whale. (…). Finally a local man with a gun and a lot of courage killed the monster’.
The cetacean was then brought to shore to be displayed for the locals.
20th Century historical strandings
In the 20th Century (see Figure 1) there is a large quantity of records in the 1930s thanks mainly to the work of Braga (Reference Braga1940) and Nobre (Reference Nobre1900, Reference Nobre1935, Reference Nobre1937, Reference Nobre1938) who were naturalists of the early 20th Century. Their dedicated work to zoology was registered in scientific journals of the time. The fact that this information, usually given by local fishing communities, reached these naturalists, allowed for the recording and publishing of these strandings and they became an important source of information for historical studies.
Some of the records are reported often with illustrations to confirm the correct identification of the species and in many cases the information was confronted and confirmed with the help of naturalists abroad. Despite that, occasionally species were not correctly identified, for instance, Balaenoptera physalus was first misidentified as Balaenoptera musculus (Anon, Reference Anon1723; Nobre, Reference Nobre1937, Reference Nobre1938; Braga, Reference Braga1940) and only 20 years later was correctly identified as a fin whale by Teixeira (Reference Teixeira1979). Also, Nobre (Reference Nobre1935) has incorrectly identified the individual as a pilot whale (Globicephala melas) which was correctly identified later on (Fraser, Reference Fraser1950) as a false killer whale (Pseudorca crasidens) and this constituted the first record of this species for mainland Portugal. This correct identification was only possible because photographs were taken at the scene which demonstrated the important contribution of photography in documenting these events.
In September 1917 a whale stranded in Costa de Mira (Aveiro), it was found by fishermen who used the soft tissues and left the whale skeleton. Osório (Reference Osório1909) having first identified the whale as a sperm whale was later able to correctly identify it as a beaked whale (Ziphius cravirostris) using skeleton analysis.
On 9 September 1935, Nobre (Reference Nobre1935) described an animal that was found in Sines harbour. According to the harbour master the whale was seen from shore while it was feeding. The whale was then shot by the harbour master who stated that ‘its bones were so thick, that the bullets were crushed near the bones as if they were fired onto a rock’. In the whale's stomach were found ‘squids and other fishes’ and it provided 200 kg of oil.
In 1937 the local newspapers of Oporto noticed that a baleote (small whale) had stranded in Praia do Paraíso (Matosinhos). According to Nobre (Reference Nobre1938) ‘the population was curious and gathered around this stranding site, and some thousands of people came from the surrounding villages to see the happening’.
The naturalists Braga and Nobre joined the population to collect the skeleton for the Zoology Institute Museum. It is important to mention that the whale was auctioned by the fiscal delegation of the harbour and the museum was admitted as a bidder like any other. In the end the carcass was sold to an individual who ‘used the oil and meat of the animal, and then offered the skeleton to the museum as the individual was aware of its importance’ (Nobre, Reference Nobre1938).
In the 1940s no historical record was found, probably due to the Second World War when attention was given to captured or harpooned cetaceans as those were for meat (Brito, Reference Brito2008). In the 1960s there was again an increase in records, which continue to grow through the 1970s due mainly to the work of Teixeira. Teixeira's work contributed a large quantity of records due to an active search for strandings, accompanied by more detailed stranding information. This author accumulated information on strandings (Figure 6) but also on captures and occurrences (Teixeira, Reference Teixeira1979).
Fig. 6. Photographs of a stranding at Trafaria, which probably corresponds to the stranding of 22 May 1971 recorded by Teixeira (Reference Teixeira1979) (see Appendix). Credits to Carlos Carvalho.
DISCUSSION
Most historical sources about the erratic occurrence of cetaceans are from whaling or stranding records. Descriptions are often, but not always, accompanied by illustrations which were usually based on drawings made on the spot. These are indications of their author's inquiring minds and reveal an interest from the public in general, even at that time, about these rare but outstanding events (Barthelmess & Svanberg, Reference Barthelmess and Svanberg2006). In the earliest records found, whales that stranded ashore were considered truly marine monsters, for the size and strangeness they presented. Sometimes the mundane retained the magical and the animal intruded upon or threatened the human world. Whales, perhaps more than any other animal, existed in a multiplicity of meanings in early modern thought. They were good to eat, but bad to encounter, both fascinating and frightening even when dead on shore (Szabo, Reference Szabo2008). There are records about whales being a source of valuable commodities that could be made from their blubber, meat, bones, baleen and teeth, and strandings were events worth recording for future generations. Thus from about the end of the European Middle Ages, stranding records started gradually to become more frequent (Barthelmess, Reference Barthelmess2003).
The amount of early historical data for mainland Portugal is not very large but is indicative of a great diversity of species occurrence. The fact that most of the old stranding records corresponded to large whales (sperm and fin whales) may be indicative that only large animals would retain people's interest and inquisitiveness and be preserved both in oral and written history. In the majority of the strandings, the records describe species that were uncommon and probably never sighted before. Besides the long time-span and number of historical strandings, records are directly related to the effort and the number of people involved in cataloguing these events throughout this period of time. On many occasions when the whale was trapped or weak, the coastal communities led it to shallow waters provoking its stranding and death to take advantage of its resources such as oil, meat, fat and bones. The fear of these events was gradually replaced by an interest in the representation of strandings, where the images began to be more descriptive and focused on more detailed aspects of the stranded animal as shown in this work.
For early naturalists, strandings made an important contribution as a potential source of knowledge for these cetacean species that in the 18th Century were still largely unknown. Thus the first knowledge of cetacean species and their occurrence was based on anecdotes surrounding these strandings. During the 18th Century artists lacked a good knowledge about the anatomy of species which probably resulted in their drawings and paintings having distorted perspectives, misrepresentations and some of the animal parts being imperceptible. As the 18th Century progressed an interest in cetacean strandings by naturalists arose with a significant improvement in the detail and descriptions that accompanied drawings. Although in the 18th Century local people were unaware of the scientific considerations, they could identify the differences between a whale and a fish and could recognize that there were significant differences when compared with other marine animals.
The quantity of the records in the 19th and early 20th Centuries is related to places where fishing communities were established, whilst in the second half of the 20th Century the work of naturalists such as Nobre, Braga and Seabra was of great importance. These naturalists recorded stranding events in scientific journals of the time, based on the information gathered from popular anecdotes, and in most cases showed the species correct identification. This states a clear interest in the scientific potential of the strandings and shows collaboration between people using the whale's resources and people studying them. For instance, in 1937 the whale that stranded in Praia do Paraíso, demonstrates that although at the time the bidder used all the whale's resources he also realized the importance of that unique and strange animal to the museum and to science. In the 1970s the work of Teixeira was very significant in recording these events and his specific dedication to collecting these data was extremely relevant for the quantity and quality of the information gathered.
Such as in other regions (e.g. Barthelmess & Svanberg, Reference Barthelmess and Svanberg2009), historical strandings of large whales have not received adequate attention in cetological literature. These records provide an important resource to understand species’ occurrence through time and it is very helpful to managers and conservationists that are trying to evaluate cetacean populations’ status (Parsons, Reference Parsons2004), and nowadays give an important contribution to the study of zoology and mammalogy in Portugal.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We acknowledge the help from Marina Sequeira (ICNB), António Teixeira (ICNB) and Inês Carvalho. Special thanks are due to Ana Sousa and two anonymous referees for reviewing the manuscript. This research was possible thanks to the support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through a doctoral fellowship to C. Brito. A. Sousa conducted this research during her MSc in marine biology at the University of Aveiro. This paper is dedicated to Carlos Carvalho whose family allowed the publication of the two photographs of a stranded sperm whale. He was a special man that, amongst other principles, valued the sea and marine animals.
Appendix. Records of 38 historical strandings indicating number, date, species, number of animals, location, relevant stranding information. Sex and total length (TL) are presented as well as misidentifications.
