Seaquake-injured Pilot Whales Strand on Scotland Beach

Sixteen pilot whales, including four calves, were injured by an undersea earthquake on 11 August 2012. They died in a mass stranding on the coast of Fife in Scotland.

The pod of 26 was discovered inside a cove on a small sandy beach at the base of steep cliffs in Pittenweem, near St Andrews, shortly after 7am on Sunday (02 Sept 2012). A further 24 pilot whales from the same pod have been seen in the shallows three miles along the coast at Cellardyke. They were being closely observed amid fears they might also beach.

A spokesman for Fife coast guard said: "The usual scenario would be that the whale that is leading the group has become ill, or has lost its way, and gets beached and the rest will follow on, although we do not know for sure if that is what happened."  This NONSENSE is wrong.  To understand why I say this read "Whale Stranding Conspiracy."

The truth is that all the whales in the pod are lost and swimming along with the flow of the surface currents.

The pod was previously injured by potent low frequency pressure changes (seaquakes) induced into the water by the following undersea earthquake:  Magnitude    mb 5.3   NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE

Date time: 2012-08-11 17:47:30.0 UTC

Location 1692 km W of Dublin at 52.21N; 31.46W

The quake was focused only 3 km below the ocean's surface at an intersection of an east-west trending transform fault and a small section of the north-south running mid-ocean ridge axis.

An extremely shallow seafloor quake is especially dangerous because when the focal distance below the seafloor is less the the length of the average P-wave in the solid bottom, the low frequency pressure changes pass through the rock/water interface as if there was not interface at all. The average length of the average low frequency P-wave is 7 km. With a depth of focus only 3km below the seabed, the low frequency noise would be strong enough to not only destroy their cranial air spaces but would also cause cochlea damage.   

In this message sent on 16 August to all members of the European Cetacean Society, I warned that the above whale-dangerous earthquake had occurred. They knew about my work and understood that I was saying this quake could cause a beaching. 

The Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where these quakes occurred, is a prime feeding ground for pilot whales diving to ~1,000 meters to feed on schools of squid.

Seaquake waves (aka; potent disturbances in water pressure) generated by shallow quakes induced barosinusitis in the sinuses and air sacs of all adult members of the diving pod. The injury disables each whale's ability to echo-navigate and to dive and feed itself.

The pod becomes lost at sea!

Because water in 700 times more dense than air, resistance (drag) to swimming in any direction except with the flow, quickly turns the lost pod and points their streamlined bodies headfirst in a downstream direction. Said differently, surface currents control their travel path from the point of injury to the beach, not the lost whales.

Thus... understanding the physical characteristics of the surface currents around Scotland is fundamental to understanding why these whales landed where they did. Here are some websites that will give you a complete picture and cause you to understand why whales accidently swim into the sand.  Remember, surface currents control the swim path of the seaquake-injured whales... the whales themselves have very little to say about where they are washed ashore.

http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/atlantic/slope.html

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/03/16182005/25

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/04/03093608/13

The quake was located at 52:21N; 31:46W, which is situated in the lower left-hand corner of the surface current chart below.  You can see that the surface flow was east for ~500 hundred miles and then shifted north around Iceland and toward Scotland.

 

By September 1st, the whales had already rounded the tip of North Scotland

As you can see in this chart below, there is a shoreward current (green) that hugs the East Coast.

The chart below verifies this fact.

The injured pod swam about 100 miles per day downstream and were eventually washed into the cove and onto the sand at the base of the steep cliffs in Pittenweem, 1,500 hundred miles from the quake's epicenter.

The pod came in on the surface flow created by a rising tide and a shoreward wind as you can see in thisvideo.

This pod likely stranded at night when the winds and seas were a bit more rough.  The darkness, the breaking waves, and the sand and bubbles entrapped in the water prevented them from spotting the beach. Knowing that half-starved sharks were trailing behind them also pressed them forward.

When the high tide refloated the whales and then began to ebb, the inward flow of the surface current changed and began slowly flowing offshore. This is when the rescuers decided to release the whales in hopes the flow of the outgoing tide would wash them back out to sea.

As you can clearly see in this rather long video, the whales had no sense of direction whatsoever. They had no idea how to get to deep water or where they were going just as they had no idea where they were when they went ashore.

The fear of shark attack causes the pod to remain close to each other; this is simply the herding instinct observed is so many land animals and in schools of fish. They are no strong social bonds; there is only fear of being eaten alive. This fear causes the near panic you see in the one whale that swam off on his own in the above video.

The "follow the leader theory" is simply a figment of the observer's imagination. The self-preservation of the individual is what matters when one lost whale follows another to the beach. The one following hopes the one in front knows where he is going so he follows. It is a perfect example of the acoustically blind leading the acoustically blind.

An investigation into the local weather conditions will reveal shoreward wind and a rising tide favorable for washing this lost pod toward the sandy area at this particular location along the coast. It's all in the timing of the surface flow and the falling tide favorable to guide them back out to the waiting sharks. The pod passed the area at the time when the winds, helped by the incoming tide, blew them ashore.

UPDATE:  On Tuesday the released whales were spotted milling around near the Forth bridges.  North Queensferry residents David Skivens and Mick Schofield took Mick's inflatable dinghy out on the Forth on Monday evening and attempted to guide the whales out and prevent them from beaching.

David said, "They seemed very confused and seemed to be going out to sea but within seconds they were turning back again."

It won't be long until the sharks take them, as has been Nature's way for millions of years. The well-meaning rescuers were not saving whales; but, at least, they were doing good by feeding the starving sharks.

UPDATE (Sept 8):  The pilot whales are still alive and still lost at sea. The rescuers "hope" they are feeding and will soon move far offshore and out of sight so they can claim another false success.

There are ways to save stranded whales but it will require herding them into a cove, protecting them from shark attack, and figuring out a way to provide lost of fresh water and feed them for a few weeks.

Capt. David Williams

Deafwhale Society, Inc.

http://www.deafwhale.com

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Site Map for http://deafwhale.com  

Why Whales Strand: The Logical Truth   
Seaquakes kill 322 Baleen Whales in Chile   
Three Fin Whales Killed by Seaquake   
The Danger of Seaquakes   
How Seaquakes Cause Whale Strandings   
Scientists Lying About Whale Strandings   
Whale Scientists Spreading Propaganda Part II   
Scuba Divers Survive Seaquakes   
Surface Currents Guide Whales to the Beach   
Seaquake-Vessel Encounters from 1900 to 2015   
Seaquake-Vessel Encounters from 1800 to 1899   
History of Whale Drive Fisheries and Seaquakes   
Typical Seaquake Reported by a Ship at Sea   
Various Whale Beaching Theories   
Whale Stranding Solutions   
Variables in Seaquake-Induced Whale Strandings   
Narwhals Trapped in Arctic Ice   
Seaquake Causes Whale Beaching   
1988 article why whales and dolphins strand (PDF)   
2013 Science Article - seaquakes cause whale strandings (PDF)   
Seismic Airguns Kill Endangered Sea Turtles    
Nuclear Submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) sunk by seaquake   
1966 US Navy verifies seaquakes sinks ships and kill marine life   
Ghost Ship Mary Celeste abandoned during seaquake    

Site Map for http://deafwhale.blogspot.com   

2015

Dec 09: Whale Dangerous Earthquake South of Perth 
Dec 09: Seaquake causes dolphins to strand Baja California   
Nov 23: Seaquakes kill 322 baleen whales in Chile    (shocking)  
Aug 24: NOAA whale scientists dumbfounded   
Aug 14: stranded dolphin is determined to be deaf   
Aug 08: seaquake causes pilot whales to strand Nova Scotia   
Jul   27: is our stranding solution flawed as scientists claim   
Jun  01: pilots stranded Isles of Skye from Reykjanes Ridge   
May 22: dead whales washing ashore on the California Coast   
May 10: earthquake kills 20 Sei Whales near Chile Coast   
Apr  10: seaquake strands 150 melon-headed whales in Japan   

2014   
Dec 25: navigation failure in mass stranded whales  (most popular)   
Dec 08: seaquake causes 7 sperm whales to beach Australia   
Nov 24: seaquake beaches 3 sperm whales at Golden Bay   
Nov 04: seaquake beaches 60 pilot whales in Bay of Plenty   
Oct 29: nine pilot whales strand on Prince Edward Island   
Apr  11: 60 pilot whales beach in Bay of Plenty   
Mar 20: Cape Ray Newfoundland 37 dolphins beach   
Mar 14: undersea quakes louder than nuclear explosions   
Mar 13: seaquakes cause whale strandings 32 million years   
Mar 02: blue whale killed by seaquake in Kuwait   
Feb 27: seaquake kills young killer whale   
Feb 23: predicting mass beachings based on seaquakes   
Feb 21: lessons in understanding why whales beach   
Feb 18: seaquake Greenland Sea kills 3 sperm whales   
Feb 12: nine orcas killed by seaquake   
Jan 30: Cape Cod mass stranding predicted   
Jan 20: seaquake causes 39 pilot whales to strand Florida   
Jan 16: seaquakes beach 65 pilot whales in Golden Bay   
Jan 05: seaquake beaches 30 pilot whales in Golden Bay   

2013   
Dec 06: why did pilot whales beached in the everglades?   
Apr 30: seaquake beaches 6 killer whales in Iceland   
Apr 25: beached whales stop war games   

2012   
Dec 08: seaquake beach pilot whales South Carolina   
Nov 15: pilot whales beach at Golden Bay, New Zealand   
Nov 04: seaquake causes two pods to beach at King Island   
Oct 28:  pilot whales strand on North Andaman Island   
Oct 17: earthquakes cause New Zealand whale stranding   
Sep 09: earthquake kills pregnant sperm whale   
Sep 03: seaquake strands pilot whales in Scotland   
Aug 24: two quakes cause near beaching in Cape Verde   
Jul  28:  200 Pilot Whales Northwest of Iceland   
Mar 19: Four Sperm Whales Wash Ashore in China   

2011   
Dec  31: world's rarest whales killed by earthquake   
Mar 06: 52 melon-headed dolphins strand in Japan   

2008   
Nov 20: 52 Pilot Whales Stranded in Tasmania

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