SEAQUAKES CAUSED POD OF WHALES TO BEACHED NEAR FT. PIERCE, FLORIDA
To review the real cause of whale and dolphin beachings, read the column on the right. In general, this pod was injured by two quakes, one a few seconds after the first. The events occurred along the Central Mid-Atlantic Ridge, upstream about 3,000 miles form the stranding beach. The pressure-related injury damaged their sinuses and knocked out their ability to echo-navigate and to dive and feed themselves. They were swimming north with the surface currents along the Florida Coast.There were two weather systems affecting the surface flow. The shoreward wind picked up and blew the surface waters and the whales into the sand. You can notice in this SST image that warmer Gulf Stream waters washed inward just north of West Palm Beach at 01:58 GMT early Saturday morning. This is when the non-navigating whales were brought in near shore. They moved north with this filament of warmer water and were then washed into the sand by an inflowing tide and a strong wind blowing shoreward.