Do n’t be surprised if Shamu looks a little pink the next time you see him . Whales are stomach from burn at an alarming rate — well , the substantial alert is that whales get suntan . ( There are legion problems with hulk and sunburn . How much sunscreen would a whale penury ? What SPF works best ? How does one use it to these aquatic creatures ? The logistics are a nightmare . )
From 2007 to 2009 , Karina Acevedo - Whitehouse , a postdoctoral buster at the Zoological Society of London , examined whalesswimming in the slender body of water between Mexico and Baja , California . This paring of piss is close to tropical latitudes ; Cancer the Crab rates are five times higher in theses regions . Acevedo - Whitehouse took photographic view , and using a stainless steel dart , she collected pelt biopsy of downcast , fin , and sperm whales . The bulk of the sampling exhibited abnormal cells associated with UV damage to deoxyribonucleic acid — better bang as tan .
The investigator discovered suntan on the lowest bed of the whales ’ skin , indicating the beasts suffer from austere scathe . When the whales come on for atmosphere , they expose their pelt to UV rays , pass to erythema solare . Unlike other animals with feathers or fur ( or the power to move into tincture ) , the whales have no natural fashion to protect themselves from overexposure . And much like humankind , wakeful - skinned whale suffer from erythema solare more often than their darker skin congeneric , the authors save in the report published in theProceedings of the Royal Society B.
All joke apart , Acevedo - Whitehouse notes there is slight to be done to foreclose whales from prolong the sting of a sunburn . " I do not conceive we would be able to do very much to reduce the scathe to whales due to sun exposure , " Acevedo - Whitehouse told Discovery News .
