THE TRUTH ABOUT WHY WHALES MASS STRAND

August 2012:  The Cape Verde mass stranding of 17 pilot whales took place on Santa Maria Beach (Sal Island 16.590N; 22.900W) during early morning hours on August 24, 2012.  The rescuers were able to push the whales back into deep water and they swam off with the surface flow. These whales were easily rescued because the depth of water at this beach drops off rather quickly due to beach erosion by currents that run parallel to the shoreline at Santa Maria Beach. In other words, this beach is not your stranding-typical, gradually-slopping beach. You can see the water quickly gets deeper near the whales in the pictures. You can also see that the whales are swimming from left to right indicating that the current was flowing west (to the right) and along the shoreline. The two quakes that injured this pod occurred along the Central Mid Atlantic Ridge, just north of the equator at: 4:49N; 32:73W. The first event was a shallow, thrus...

Sunday, March 6, 2011 MITO, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) Twenty-two melon-headed whales that had washed ashore in Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture, were rescued and returned to the sea Saturday by authorities and local volunteers. About 50 of the whales were found beached Friday night. Around 200 people, including staff from Ibaraki's Oarai Aquarium, municipal government officials and local residents and surfers tried to save the whales by keeping them hydrated while they tried to re-float them, but about 30 of them died, according to the municipal government. Melon-headed whales are commonly seen offshore around the area in early spring. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/03/06/Rescuers-save-22-melon-headed-whales/UPI-31111299430669/ We have located 5 earthquakes that might fit this stranding. The one we favor occurred offshore of Taiwan on 15 February 2011 ( Link ). The epicenter was ~1500 miles upstream from the stranding beach. The distance and time traveled agree ...