It has been a gruesome start of the year for many whale species swimming in the oceans of the Eastern hemisphere. Several beachings have taken place leaving whales stranded on beaches, including dozens of smaller whales in India, and even bringing to the shore massive sperm whales in Europe.
Now, another eight sperm whales have been found on European beaches just within a couple of weeks of the last tragic event. The reason for all these sudden beachings of these massive sea mammals still remains unknown at this point in time.
Sperm whales are massive – capable of growing more than 20 meters long and weighing over 50 tons. They’re the largest predators with teeth in the world.
It’s possible that during migration or food hunting, the animals are having trouble communicating with one another in the ocean via their acoustic echolocation systems due to shallow waters, sonar, and boat noise. The end result is they’re ending up lost from the rest of their pods and the shallow waters do the rest to make them end up on beaches.
They were discovered near Friedrichskoog, Germany and are approximately the same age as the other sperm whales discovered to be beached just a couple of weeks ago. It’s possible they’re all from the same pod, as large animals like this like to travel in groups.
Just like last time, the whales, which are too massive to move by hand, are being barricaded off and beach-goers are advised to stay away from them. Authorities are continuing to investigate what the cause of the beachings may be.
Source: Phys.org
