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Seaquake Causes 7 Sperm Whales to Beach in Southern Australia on Dec. 8th, 2014

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On 22 Nov. 2014, a magnitude 5.1 seaquake erupted in the seafloor along the Southeast Indian Ridge   2006 km (1246 mi) SSW  of   Perth, Australia.   This area is a known sperm whale feeding habitat. The whales dive along this range of volcanic mountains feeding mostly on squid. The quake occur at  49.196 S ; 108.748 E. This location is not far from 49.700 S ; 125.870 E  where sperm whales were injury by a seaquake on 5 October 2014.   This group stranded at Golden Bay New Zealand on 22 November 2014. Sixteen days after the seaquake, on Monday morning (December 8), six sperm whales stranded on  Parara Beach  in the Gulf of Saint Vincent just south of the town of  Ardrossan. A seventh whale was found near a jetty later in the day.   A fisherman has also reported seeing an eighth whale in deeper water. (see top news report) Ardrossan caravan park manager Steve Ruddock said a worker at his park spotted some of the stranded whales splashing in the water as the tide headed on the mor

Seaquake Causes Three Sperm Whales to Beach at Golden Bay, New Zealand (November 22, 2014)

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THE TRUTH ABOUT WHY WHALES BEACH THEMSELVES In what became a Golden Bay, New Zealand community event, hundreds of people turned up at Rototai beach (48.829S by 172.828E) to see and touch three dead sperm whales that had become stranded on Saturday night, November 22, 2014. The whales, which ranged in length from 14 to 17 meters long were located about one km out on tidal flats. The three whales were towed by tug boat to Farewell Spit last night, once the tide was high enough to move them. Department of Conservation biodiversity programme manager Hans Stoffregen said DOC had received a phone call from Rototai residents saying there were whales milling about at sea. "This morning we got a call from residents saying they were stranded." The quake that caused this event occurred on October 5th at 8:24 pm Wellington time. The stranding occurred 48 days after their injury, which explains why they died so quickly after stranding. I suspect they became trapped inside a c