What did the Romans do? They killed off two species of whale in the Med

A forgotten Roman whaling industry may have died off two large species of whale in the Mediterranean Sea, new research suggests.

Whale bones found in the ruins of a Roman fish processing factory in the Strait of Gibraltar were identified by scientists

Both the North Atlantic right whale and Atlantic gray whale has suffered badly at the hands of the whalers over the centuries.

Today the North Atlantic right whale is listed as endangered and confined to a population off the east coast of North America.

The Atlantic gray whale has vanished from the Atlantic Ocean and is now restricted to the North Pacific.

Purpose 2,000 years ago both species regularly migrated to the Mediterranean to give birth, experts believe.

Dr. Camillar Speller, from the University of York, said: "Whales are often neglected in their archeological studies because they are often too fragmented to be identifiable by their shape."

"Our study shows that these two species are part of the Mediterranean marine ecosystem. probably in the sheltered basin on a calving ground.

"The findings contribute to the debate on whether or not the fish caught the fish."

During Roman times the Gibraltar regio n the center of a mbadive fish-processing industry that exported products to the Roman Empire.

The new study focused on an ancient processing factory in the Roman city of Baelo Claudia, near Tarifa on the coast of southern Spain. It was one of hundreds of similar plants where large salting tanks survived.

Lead author Dr. Ana Rodrigues, from the French National Center for Scientific Research, said: "Romans did not have the necessary technology to capture types of large whales currently found in the Mediterranean, which are high-seas species.

"But right and gray whales and their calves would be very close to shore, making them tempting targets for local fishermen.

" It seems incredible that we could have lost and as well-studied as the Mediterranean. "

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The findings, reported in the Basque language journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, help explain a first-century description by the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder that has long puzzled academics.

He wrote about killer whales attacking other whales and their new-born calves in the Bay of Cadiz, Spain.

Study co-author Dr. Anne Charpentier, from the University of Montpellier in France, said: "It does not work. t-shirt, but fits perfectly with the ecology if right and gray whales used to be present. "

– Press Association