Seasonal pattern of sperm whale stranding events in the southern North Sea (1750–2016).

<p>Numbers prior to 1996 derived from Smeenk [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0201221#pone.0201221.ref005" target="_blank">5</a>].</p

Annual variation in sperm whale strandings in the North Sea.

<p>Grey bars indicate the total number of stranded sperm whales per year; points and connecting lines show the total number of individual stranding events per year.</p

Numbers and locations of stranded sperm whales across the southern North Sea region (January-May 2016).

<p>The asterisks indicate stranding locations, with the number of the stranded sperm whales referring to the strandings data presented in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0201221#pone.0201221.s001" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>. The colour palette represents the total depth of the area, with all dark red areas being <5 m (Bathymetry layer: [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0201221#pone.0201221.ref061" target="_blank">61</a>]).</p

Main findings stranded sperm whales.

<p>The table included case numbers, country (DE = Germany, DK = Denmark, FR = France, NL = the Netherlands, UK = United Kingdom, here England), stranding dates (all during 2016), stranding locations, decomposition condition codes (DCC) of the cases at the time of investigation, the date of the post mortem investigation, total length (TL, in m), age (in years), any significant pre-existing disease, evidence of trauma, results of gross ear examination, visual assessment of evidence of gas emboli, detection of <i>Brucella</i> spp. and Morbillivirus infections. NE = Not Examined. NAD = No Abnormalities Detected. U = Unable to examine due to decomposition condition.</p

Sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly based on the daily average between 1981 and 2011 in °C and direction in degree angle and speed in m/s of ocean current on the position 61.28° N, 1.85° E retrieved from [https://earth.nullschool.net/] on the 22.06.2017; based on data from Ocean Surface Current Analyses Real-time (OSCAR) [http://www.esr.org/oscar_index.html] for ocean currents and for SST on data from NOAA (Marine Modelling and Analysis Branch of the Environmental Modelling Center within the National Centers for Environmental Prediction of the National Weather Service) [http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/].

<p>Sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly based on the daily average between 1981 and 2011 in °C and direction in degree angle and speed in m/s of ocean current on the position 61.28° N, 1.85° E retrieved from [<a href="https://earth.nullschool.net/" target="_blank">https://earth.nullschool.net/</a>] on the 22.06.2017; based on data from Ocean Surface Current Analyses Real-time (OSCAR) [<a href="http://www.esr.org/oscar_index.html" target="_blank">http://www.esr.org/oscar_index.html</a>] for ocean currents and for SST on data from NOAA (Marine Modelling and Analysis Branch of the Environmental Modelling Center within the National Centers for Environmental Prediction of the National Weather Service) [<a href="http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/" target="_blank">http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/</a>].</p