People have been finding sea animals that have inexplicably washed up on shore since at least the first century AD, as evidenced by ancient Roman and Greek documents.
And these days this phenomenon is not rare. 2002 - 55 whales washed ashore on Cape Cod Bay. Thanks to the efforts of American rescuers, 46 animals were saved. 2004 - in the area of the Canary archipelago, 15 whales washed up on the shores of two islands. Only three of them were saved.
June 2005 - About 160 whales washed up on the coast of Australia. Rescuers, with the help of volunteers, did not allow the five-meter “fish” to die.
October 2005 - 70 whales died on the beaches of the island of Tasmania (Australia).
March 2007 - 12 whales washed ashore on one of the Galapagos Islands. Despite all the efforts of rescuers, seven animals died.
2012 - On Cape Cod alone, 177 common dolphins stranded and 124 died.
Scientists are still searching for answers that will unlock this mystery.
There are many theories about why these smart animals end up in shallow waters and then wash up on shore. If one animal washes up on the shore, there may be several explanations for this.
Dolphins, whales, porpoises and seals beach themselves alone when they become disoriented or suffer from some disease, infection or injury.
Young animals just beginning their independent lives can make this fatal mistake simply due to inexperience. Old animals may end up on the shore, dying from natural causes.
Unfortunately, human activity does not leave its mark on marine mammals, sometimes leading to the death of the animal or being thrown ashore.
Scientists suggest that cetaceans wash ashore en masse for the following reasons:
Unfortunately, the self-destruction of whales and dolphins remains a mystery. However, scientists continue to conduct research and, perhaps, they will soon find the answer to this painful question for many.
The whale suicide in New Zealand was the largest mass mammal suicide in decades.
The Department of Nature Conservation launched a rescue operation. Due to too many whales, local residents had to be involved in the operation. People carried buckets, towels and sheets to the beach to cool and hydrate the whales. However, at least 300 of them died.
About a hundred more were sent out to sea with the tide. However, the whales did not go deeper and remained close to the beach. Rescuers are afraid that with the low tide they will rush ashore again.
The incident was the third largest whale suicide in New Zealand. In 1918, a thousand whales washed up on the shores of the Chatham Islands; in 1985, 450 animals died near Auckland. About 300 whales strand on New Zealand's coast each year.
Why do whales wash ashore?
Dmitry Glazov, specialist at the Severtsov Institute of Evolution and Ecology of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
Scientists have still not come to a consensus on the causes of mass suicides of cetaceans, but there are a number of facts with which such incidents can be associated. When the English flotilla tested new sonars in the Mediterranean Sea, there were emissions of dolphins. There are cases when dolphins are thrown away due to diseases, and porpoises are thrown away due to a viral infection of the hearing aid. Last year, more than 300 Caspian seals stranded in Dagestan: at that time, our military was launching missiles from the Caspian flotilla in Syria, so this may be connected.
Mental disorders are often attributed to mammals. But we cannot prove this. We still can’t decipher their language, much less get into their brains.
There are natural phenomena. New Zealand has a fairly active seismic zone, so underground movements could disrupt the orientation of the animals. What's surprising is that the 100 rescued individuals that were released into the sea still tried to throw themselves ashore - this suggests that the disorientation was long-lasting. There is intoxication. A school of dolphins attacked the infected fish, and this affects one way or another. It is also surprising that 400 individuals washed up in one place at once, not along the entire coast. What often happens is that corpses are discovered over several tens of kilometers, but here they are all in one place.
In this case, animals have two problems: drying out and lack of breathing. Firstly, you need to constantly water them, and secondly, provide water to the respiratory organs, while making sure that the animals do not choke.
A dead whale on the shore is a sad sight, forcing one to try to understand the cause of death of such a massive and beautiful animal. What if it’s not one whale, but two, five, dozens?
Why do whales wash ashore?
The mass stranding of whales on the shore is one of the tragic and intriguing mysteries of nature, over which many scientists are still scratching their heads. The sad sight of the dead bodies of huge animals in an unusual environment for them evokes a feeling of bewilderment and pity. What makes the main inhabitants of the oceanic expanses end their lives on the sandy shore and die under the scorching rays of the sun? Why did the whales wash ashore?
For example, in February 2015, about 200 dolphins washed ashore in New Zealand. According to scientists, such a mass phenomenon has not been observed for more than 10 years. Despite the best efforts of rescuers, only a hundred individuals managed to survive.
The rest died from their own weight and due to lack of water. Although group emissions are most often observed in whales, most are among deep-sea species.
Ocean sound pollution
The endless expanse of water is filled with many sounds, most of which are of natural origin. Increasingly, the calm life of the ocean is disrupted by human-made noise (from submarine engines, mining, military testing and fishing). As a result, dolphins and whales lose their hearing by almost 40% when exposed to sonar.
What does loss of hearing (the delicate instrument that can detect the slightest vibrations in water) mean for an animal whose life depends on the ability to hear? Underwater sound traps disorient animals in the water, leading them off their usual path, so whales and dolphins, lost in space, swim out into shallow water.
Ascending to the surface too quickly contributes to the occurrence of decompression sickness, which is inherent in divers, in which, due to a sharp decrease in pressure, nitrogen bubbles accumulate in the blood and damage internal organs and blood vessels. This assumption is confirmed by scientists who found signs of such a disease during autopsies of dead animals. According to scientists, nitrogen bubbles contained in the blood of whales can be directly influenced by loud sounds from submarine engines and explosions. Under the influence of sound waves, bubbles, rapidly expanding and contracting, can clog blood vessels, damage tissue, and injure the nervous system.
The reason for the mass death of whales is military exercises?
Strong explosions, in addition to clogging blood vessels, can cause rupture of animal organs. This phenomenon (lung ruptures and bleeding internal organs) scientists observed while examining whales and dolphins that had washed ashore during or after military exercises. For example, in 1989, during naval exercises 24 whales washed ashore near the Canary Islands. Why did the whales wash ashore? Most likely, the cause was the unbearable underwater noise, which literally deafened the aquatic inhabitants. The damage caused by submarines to marine life is most carefully studied by the Americans, since it is in this country that the military complex is subject to the strongest public pressure.
The beaching of whales occurred even before the manifestation of man-made evolution of mankind and the appearance submarines. What in those days could have determined this feature of the inhabitants of the oceans? In 1950, 64 whales washed ashore on the island of Stronsay, and 5 years later, 66 dolphins died here. What makes animals choose this method of death? Why did the whales wash ashore?
Failure of magnetic fields?
According to Margaret Klinowski's theory, whales migrate annually to warmer waters to mate and give birth to their calves, after which the marine animals return. The routes followed largely depend on magnetic fields, which are a kind of landmarks. In places where these fields fluctuate the most, whales can lose their orientation and swim into shallow water. It has been noted that mass suicides of whales predominantly occur immediately after solar flares that distort magnetic lines.
According to one version, whales are thrown ashore due to changing climatic conditions. Ocean currents bring cold water from Antarctica, forcing whales to swim into shallow waters to warm up. In Australia, the stranding of more than 80 whales was recorded, literally littering a five-kilometer coastal zone with their bodies. Only 25 individuals were saved.
Why did the whales wash ashore? What caused the mass suicide? Perhaps a loss of orientation, which can be disrupted by weather conditions? In stormy weather with gusty strong winds, a storm surge or so-called surge of water may occur. An animal that swims too close to land may remain there without getting its bearings in a timely manner when the water subsides.
Self-regulation of numbers is another hypothesis for the mass stranding of whales. This version exists, although the number of whales in nature is not so large that it needs to be reduced.
The reason for the death of whales is pollution of the World Ocean?
Pollution of the World Ocean, which is gradually turning into a landfill of catastrophic proportions, can be considered as the reason for the mass beaching of whales. A special accumulation of garbage, a fifth of which is industrial emissions and oil waste, occurs on the shores of the Hawaiian Islands. This garbage patch, located in the Pacific Ocean, is comparable in size to the continental United States. Naturally, such a huge landfill, the mass of which exceeds 100 million tons, has a negative impact on cetaceans. Although these animals are not fish and, unlike them, breathe air rather than dissolved oxygen in a polluted aquatic environment, they can be harmed by such dumps through injury and exposure to oil spills.
Perhaps a socio-psychological factor?
The psychic hypothesis has also been put forward as one of the reasons for the mass beaching of whales. Whales and dolphins are social animals, subject to the influence of a leader. If the latter loses orientation in space and leads the flock into shallow water, then the animals, despite the mortal danger, still continue to follow him.
There is an infectious theory of cetacean suicide, to which scientists around the world are now paying special attention. Some viruses that infect mammals negatively affect the hearing system of animals, causing diseases such as meningitis and encephalitis, causing failure of the echolocation system. Having lost orientation in space, the whale (photo can be seen in the article) begins to choke, so it throws itself ashore in order to ease its breathing.
Returning to your native element will only worsen the current situation. It was previously believed that cetaceans were not susceptible to damaging viruses. In fact, their carriers may be harbor seals, the food of killer whales.
Having accidentally landed on the shore, the animal can send distress signals to its fellow creatures, who immediately rush to the rescue of the poor thing and fall into the same trap, also calling for help.
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