Wine & Science: The Stranded Giants

WINE & SCIENCE: THE STRANDED GIANTS

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, August 12 at 6 p.m.

In 2026, eight sperm whales have stranded along the coast of Jutland. Each time a large whale washes ashore on Danish coasts, a team of experts from the National Museum of Natural History and several Danish universities mobilizes to dissect the whale and investigate the cause of death - and to examine various aspects of the whales' little-known biology. Five researchers gather for the evening to shed light on these stranded giants.

Participants:
Carl Kinze - whale biologist
Anne Sofie Hammer - veterinary pathologist
Coen Elemans - bioacoustician
Henrik Lauridsen - biologist, heart researcher
Peter Agger - specialist physician, heart researcher

Program:

Whale researcher Carl Kinze examines the sperm whale strandings from a historical perspective - documented in Denmark since 1572 - and explores theories about why whales strand. New patterns are emerging: here at home, only males have stranded so far, and they have become younger and smaller. Off Scotland and in the English Channel, by contrast, females and calves are beginning to strand. Could this be due to climate change?

Veterinary pathologist Anne Sofie Hammer from the University of Copenhagen is a permanent member of the whale response team and plays a central role in the necropsies. She describes what the pathological examinations of this year's stranded sperm whales have revealed - and how one even approaches performing a necropsy on such an enormous animal.

Professor and bioacoustician Coen Elemans has spent over a decade researching the complex mechanisms behind animal vocalizations. The sperm whale's nasal complex is the animal kingdom's largest and most advanced sound-producing organ and produces the world's most powerful biological sounds. From one of the stranded sperm whales, Coen secured the so-called monkey lips - the valves that toothed whales use to produce click sounds - and takes us into the whales' sound universe.

Biologist Henrik Lauridsen and physician Peter Agger have, as part of a research project on large animals' hearts, collected and examined hearts from a range of whale species