Cetacean Strandings: Whales Are Beaching Themselves, Who Do We Blame?

Beaching or stranding is a condition that happens in both healthy humans and injured (or dead) animals that are washed ashore by high winds.

Thousands of whales, dolphins, and other aquatic creatures wash up on beaches all around the world every year. Mass strandings occur when a group of aquatic animals beaches themselves together, and other times an area can experience an unusually high amount of strandings over a period of time.

Noise, such as sound waves from sonar and seismic tests, disrupts whales' ability to interact and navigate and may lead them to strand by deafening, disorienting, or terrifying them. Deep-sea animals that live in the open ocean, such as beaked whales, are particularly vulnerable to sonar, which can be heard from miles away. The string of beaked whale strandings in Guam, for example, is believed to be linked to naval sonar activity. Whales, according to Robinson, are "perhaps the most acoustically intelligent species on the planet." The sounds can cause damage to their hearing because sound moves quickly through water than air and maintains its strength for longer.

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