DARLENE KETTEN hoped the morbid express delivery would finally answer some questions. The two beaked whale heads, packed in ice, were flown in from the Bahamas for autopsy in a lab in Boston. The pair had died in an unusual mass stranding of 17 whales on the Abacos Islands. Beached animals tend to be dead when they are discovered, but this time the whales were caught in the act. Local marine biologists returned more than half to the water and preserved the heads of some of those they couldn't save. It was the first time a post-mortem had followed so swiftly after a beaching.
The incident coincided with a US navy sonar exercise nearby. Naval sonar tests have been blamed for driving thousands of whales and dolphins to their deaths. Ketten, who specialises in underwater hearing at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, examined the whales' ears with a CT ...
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