Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

No, I simply answered, not dismissed, a question that was asked by the OP. I was participating. 8-)

tschmath Loc: Los Angeles

Why should I have to prove someone else's assertions? If I disagree with an assertion, then it's my responsibility to research it and disprove it. If someone makes a claim, and is asked for source material for that claim, it's up to the claimant to give sources.

As to your other question, I've already answered it, but let me try again. There's a difference between doubt and skepticism. If I doubt your claim, I think it's false. If I'm skeptical, I'm not sure one way or the other. I was skeptical of your assertion, so I wanted to see what formed your opinion. Someone other than you provided that information, so I now agree with your initial asssertion. Why are you beating this horse over and over again? My previous post made it very clear that I accepted the findings of Scientific American. Can you just give it a rest now?

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

There's the irony again. Is this do as I say, not as I do? In any event, I am glad you learned something about whales today, thanks to someone doing the research for you. 8-)

pigpen

You had no problem with the OP's conclusion he jumped to, the oil spill by the evil BP!

star2344 Loc: Lakewood Ranch, FLorida

Alarmed? Of course not. They have been doing this for millions of years.

Gnslngr

Alarmed? I don't honestly know, although I'd trust the Scientific American answer.

On a related note, Arctic Sea ice is melting at an unprecedented rate. We're all screwed, and there ain't nothing we can do about it.

ted45 Loc: Delaware

As a previous post suggested, do the research. Whales have been beaching themselves for as long as I can remember. There are videos on YouTube showing beaching in progress and it happens all over the world.

The last report I read from a marine biologist stated that they haven't been able to pin down a conclusive reason for this behavior.

madcapmagishion

I'm no marine biologist ... but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night so here goes ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strandings can be grouped into several types. The most obvious distinctions are between single and multiple strandings. The carcasses of deceased cetaceans are likely to float to the surface at some point; during this time, currents or winds may carry them to a coastline. Since thousands of cetaceans die every year, many become stranded posthumously. Most whale carcasses never reach the coast and are scavenged or decomposed enough to sink to the ocean bottom, where the carcass forms the basis of a unique local ecosystem called whale fall. Single live strandings are often the result of illness or injury, which almost inevitably end in death in the absence of human intervention.
Multiple strandings in one place are rare and often attract media coverage as well as rescue efforts. Even multiple offshore deaths are unlikely to lead to multiple strandings due to variable winds and currents.
A key factor in many of these cases appears to be the strong social cohesion of toothed whales. If one gets into trouble, its distress calls may prompt the rest of the pod to follow and beach themselves alongside.[ Many theories, some of them controversial, have been proposed to explain beaching, but the question remains unresolved.]

NATURAL

Whales have beached throughout human history, so many strandings can be attributed to natural and environmental factors, such as rough weather, weakness due to old age or infection, difficulty giving birth, hunting too close to shore and navigation errors.
A single stranded animal can prompt an entire pod to respond to its distress signals and strand alongside it.
In 2004, scientists at the University of Tasmania linked whale strandings and weather, hypothesizing that when cool Antarctic waters rich in squid and fish flow north, whales follow their prey closer towards land.In some cases predators (such as killer whales) have been known to panic whales, herding them towards the shoreline.
Their echolocation system can have difficulty picking up very gently-sloping coastlines. This theory accounts for mass beaching hot spots such as Ocean Beach, Tasmania and Geographe Bay, Western Australia where the slope is about half a degree (approximately 8 m (26 ft) deep 1 km (0.62 mi) out to sea). The University of Western AustraliaBioacoustics group proposes that repeated reflections between the surface and ocean bottom in gently-sloping shallow water may attenuate sound so much that the echo is inaudible to the whales. Stirred up sand as well as long-lived microbubbles formed by rain may further exacerbate the effect.

Disruption in magnetic field

A theory advanced by Geologist Jim Berkland, formerly with the U.S. Geological Survey, attributes the strandings to radical changes in the Earth's magnetic field just prior to earthquakes and in the general area of earthquakes. Berkland says when this occurs, it interferes with sea mammals' and even migratory birds' ability to navigate, which explains the mass beachings. He claims dogs and cats can also sense the disruptions, which explains elevated rates of runaway pets 1–2 days before earthquakes. Research on Earth's magnetic field and how it is affected by moving tectonic plates and earthquakes is ongoing.

The Earthquake Theory

The species of whales and dolphins that have consistently mass beached themselves for millions of years feed on squid and small fishes above the 65,000-km-long mid-ocean ridge system, the most seismically active place on Earth. Certain earthquakes and explosive volcanic eruptions in the rift valley of this volcanic mountain range generate intense changes in ambient water pressure (seaquakes), especially when the seafloor dances in the vertical plane. Pressure changes too excessive for the pressure-regulating anatomy of the whales induce sinus barotrauma (barosinusitis) and middle-ear barotrauma (barotitis) in the entire pod resulting in the instant loss of navigational and diving abilities. Lost pods injured by excessive seismoacoustic pressure changes are steered from the epicenter by major oceanic surface currents. Many of these pods are eventually carried near shore where they are then guided onto a sandy beach by local inshore currents.
"Follow-me" strandings
Some strandings may be caused by larger cetaceans following dolphins and porpoises into shallow coastal waters. The larger animals may habituate to following faster-moving dolphins. If they encounter an adverse combination of tidal flow and seabed topography, the larger species may become trapped.
Sometimes following a dolphin can help a whale escape danger. In 2008, a local dolphin was followed out to open water by two Pygmy sperm whales that had become lost behind a sandbar at Mahia Beach, New Zealand.[8] It may be possible to train dolphins to lead trapped whales out to sea.
Pods of killer whales, predators of dolphins and porpoises, very rarely strand. Heading for shallow waters may protect the smaller animals from predators and that killer whales have learned to stay away. Alternatively, killer whales have learned how to operate in shallow waters, particularly in their pursuit of seals. The latter is certainly the case in Península Valdés, Argentina, and the Crozet Islands of the Indian Ocean, where killer whales pursue seals up shelving gravel beaches to the edge of the littoral zone. The pursuing whales are occasionally partially thrust out of the sea by a combination of their own impetus and retreating water and have to wait for the next wave to carry them back to sea.

SONAR

There is evidence that active sonar leads to beaching. On some occasions whales have stranded shortly after military sonar was active in the area, suggesting a link. Theories describing how sonar may cause whale deaths have also been advanced after necropsies found internal injuries in stranded whales. In contrast, whales stranded due to seemingly natural causes are usually healthy prior to beaching:
The low frequency active sonar (LFA sonar) used by the military to detect submarines is the loudest sound ever put into the seas. Yet the U.S. Navy is planning to deploy LFA sonar across 80 percent of the world ocean. At an amplitude of two hundred forty decibels, it is loud enough to kill whales and dolphins and already causing mass strandings and deaths in areas where U.S. and/or NATO forces are conducting exercises.
—Julia Whitty, The Fragile Edge

The large and rapid pressure changes made by loud sonar can cause hemorrhaging. Evidence emerged after 17 cetaceans hauled out in the Bahamas in March 2000 following a United States Navy sonar exercise. The Navy accepted blame agreeing that the dead whales experienced acoustically-induced hemorrhages around the ears. The resulting disorientation probably led to the stranding. Ken Balcomb, a whale zoologist, specializes in the killer whale populations that inhabit the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Washington and Vancouver Island. He investigated these beachings and argues that the powerful sonar pulses resonated with airspaces in the whales, tearing tissue around the ears and brain. Apparently not all species are affected by SONAR. Another means by which sonar could be hurting whales is a form of decompression sickness. This was first raised by necrological examinations of 14 beaked whales stranded in the Canary Islands. The stranding happened on 24 September 2002, close to the operating area of Neo Tapon (an international naval exercise) about four hours after the activation of mid-frequency sonar. The team of scientists found acute tissue damage from gas-bubble lesions, which are indicative of decompression sickness. The precise mechanism of how sonar causes bubble formation is not known. It could be due to whales panicking and surfacing too rapidly in an attempt to escape the sonar pulses. There is also a theoretical basis by which sonar vibrations can cause supersaturated gas to nucleate to form bubbles,
The overwhelming majority of the whales involved in SONAR-associated beachings areCuvier's Beaked Whales (Ziphius cavirostrus). This species strands frequently, but mass strandings are rare. They are so difficult to study in the wild that prior to the interest raised by the SONAR controversy, most of the information about them came from stranded animals. The first to publish research linking beachings with naval activity were Simmonds and Lopez-Jurado in 1991. They noted that over the past decade there had been a number of mass strandings of beaked whales in the Canary Islands, and each time the Spanish Navy was conducting exercises. Conversely, there were no mass strandings at other times. They did not propose a theory for the strandings.
In May 1996 there was another mass stranding in West Peloponnese, Greece. At the time it was noted as "atypical" both because mass strandings of beaked whales are rare, and also because the stranded whales were spread over such a long stretch of coast with each individual whale spacially separated from the next stranding. At the time of the incident there was no connection made with active SONAR, the marine biologist investigating the incident, Dr. Frantzis, made the connection to SONAR because of a Notice to Mariners he discovered about the test. His scientific correspondence in Nature titled "Does acoustic testing strand whales?" was published in March 1998.
Dr. Peter Tyack, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, has been researching noise's effects on marine mammals since the 1970s. He has led much of the recent research on beaked whales (and Cuvier's beaked whales in particular). Data tags have shown that Cuvier's dive considerably deeper than previously thought, and are in fact the deepest diving species of marine mammal. Their surfacing behavior is highly unusual because they exert considerable physical effort to surface in a controlled ascent, rather than simply floating to the surface like sperm whales. Deep dives are followed by three or four shallow dives. Vocalization stops at shallow depths, because of fear of predators or because they don't need vocalization to stay together at depths where there is sufficient light to see each other. The elaborate dive patterns are assumed to be necessary to control the diffusion of gases in the bloodstream. No data show a beaked whale making an uncontrolled ascent or failing to do successive shallow dives.
The whales may interpret the unfamiliar sound of SONAR as a predator and change its behavior in a dangerous way. This last theory would make mitigation particularly difficult since the sound levels themselves are not physically damaging, but only cause fear. The damage mechanism would not be the sound.

steve03 Loc: long Lsland

I remember when whales were stranding themselves on Long Island beaches quite a lot. It was a number of years ago. then it just stopped. Rarely do the researchers find out why the do this.

star2344 Loc: Lakewood Ranch, FLorida

You have way too time on your hands!!

madcapmagishion

Whale Strandings ... while sad it's not alarming as they have been doing it since the beginning of time, so it seems. Back in 1960 when I was a young person we had a beach house on Atlantic Beach, FL. when 2 Right Whales ran aground right behind the house and died. Couldn't get a tug to tow them off until 2 weeks later and lived with the horrid smell until it did. Had scientist from UF and Mote Marine Labs running up and down the beach like it was Christmas morning. Talked to a couple of the younger scientists and they theorized that the cause for the strandings were parasites in the whales ear canals.

FRED1 Loc: California,USA

Man some of you sound like angry old men spoiling for a argument. When your answers are sprinkled with personal jabs and petty snipes. so sad!!!

Scoutman Loc: Orlando, FL

Maybe it's the whales with time on their "hands."

Sorry. I'm burned out on footnoting stuff.

docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado

really 2300 years? like back to the bible? Only did any of those guys live near an ocean where whales might beach? Just curious

Scoutman Loc: Orlando, FL

More proof of too much time on MY hands...

Bob Marley's approach:

"Don't worry about a thing, 'cause every little thing gonna be all right." Quite convincing with music. Best with a Rum based drink. Wish I hadn't stopped drinking.

John Donne worried a lot

"No man is an Island, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

I wish he had thrown in something about whales.

I have home-schooled PhD's in virtually everything that counts (by my value system) except Divinity (which does'nt - count, that is).

With potential catastrophe ready to stike any day now, from the Middle East to the San Andreas Fault, hopefully before the November election. It's hard to focus, decide on which to worry about most, including the election.

Don't worry either about the inexorable growth of the human population, since chicken farming will keep pace. Too bad if you chose the vegetarian life style. Easier to stack chickens in crates than vegetable gardens. All the waste products and excrement will eventually be converted to whale food.

In the end, it is best to follow Alfred E. Newman's example, toasting him with a drink in hand.