mass strandings
Cetaceans ashore together
Mass strandings occur when multiple marine animals—typically whales, dolphins, or porpoises—beach themselves together on a shore.
The phenomenon puzzles scientists; proposed causes include sonar interference, magnetic field disruption, illness, or social bonds that lead healthy animals to follow a distressed leader.
Volunteers worked through the night to rescue survivors of the mass stranding.
The term also applies to sea turtles and other marine life.
- beachingLanding on shore
- whalesMassive marine mammals
- pilot whalesBulbous-headed toothed cetaceans
- dolphinsSmart aquatic mammals
- cetaceansAquatic mammals, fully marine
marine mammals · shoreline · rescue · beach rescue · tides · pods · sonar · disorientation · coastline · Cape Cod · volunteers · necropsy · mortality · ocean · ocean currents · mammals · distress · beached