Why beaching of whales and dolphins should worry us all
Many have not heard of cetacean stranding but most of us have heard of the game Blue Whale. What does the game have to do with cetacean stranding or beaching as it is commonly known? The game was named after whales, which have the habit of beaching or getting stranded on the beach and dying out of dehydration. This is romanticised as suicide and hence the name of the game. Anthony R Martin states in his 1991 book, Whales and Dolphin that up to 2,000 of these beach themselves every year.
Universal phenomenon
From the recent beaching of 30 dolphins in Punnakayal, Tamil Nadu to the earliest case of beaching recorded in 1577 engraving by artist Jan Wierix, this has been a common phenomenon. It can be inferred that beaching is something that has been happening for ages and we humans, though responsible, are not the sole cause behind it. But being the most dominant and intelligent species, we have the responsibility to try and save them.
In the case of Punnakayal, the fishermen tried to get the dolphin back into the ocean but they kept coming back. In spite of their best efforts, four dolphins were found beached next morning. Earlier in the state, in 2016, a pod of 100 pilot whales beached. The fishermen managed to save 40 but the rest of them died. They had travelled from Pacific Ocean to meet their doom here. In the year 1973, 147 whales met with the same fate. This has happened across the globe from USA to India to Iceland to Uruguay with the reasons ranging from ship strikes to human debris to "suicide".
How much do we know?
Post-mortems so far have been helpful only in eliminating "man-made" reasons behind the phenomenon. There have been many scientific explanations but nothing conclusive has been found. The most commonly attributed theories on why beaching happens include:
1) Rough weather like storms
2) Diseases caused by infection or mere old age
3) Complications in giving birth to offspring
4) Navigation errors on part of the leader of the pod
5) Predatory attacks on the pod pushing them to the beach
6) Hunting too close to the shore
7) Global warming
8) Social bonding, under which when one is in distress, the others rush to help and save it
Scientists, in case of Australia, have attributed this phenomenon to echolocation, where the whales and dolphins are unable to differentiate between land and sea echoes along gentle sloping sea lines. Germany had a mass beaching in 2016, which scientists have attributed to changes in earth's electromagnetic field caused by solar flares, based on the theory that the species uses differences in magnetic fields to navigate and are not smart enough to differentiate between subtle changes caused by solar storms.
Human part
We cannot always pass the entire blame to the sun or tide. Other than ship strikes and humongous amount of debris that we leave in the ocean, we have been contributing in a major way through our naval operations. Navy uses sonar signals, which are one of the strongest, to detect submarines on a regular basis and this confuses the whales disorienting and causing haemorrhaging in them.
When the US Navy conducted a major exercise in 2000, it resulted in 17 beached whales. US Navy accepted the blame for it. While the how is not explained yet, the causal relationship has been established. After Spain banned sonar in 2004 in its region, beaching has completely stopped as observed in a letter to Nature magazine by Antonio Fernández in 2013.
Like our adverse involvement in all other aspects of, we are also guilty of causing beaching.
Pollution - both noise and water - created by human activity is definitely a cause behind this phenomenon. Global warming too is a cause. There is change in sea temperature, melting ice caps adding fresh water, water level increase, changes in food sources due to global warming.
If we keep interfering with nature, we will soon be the only species left on earth. This is definitely not a good thing as one of the major aspects of our evolution is being part of a beautiful ecosystem. Imagine the earth like a Jenga tower with each piece representing a species. Removing any piece would cause complete collapse of the entire structure sooner or later. It is time we took responsibility for our actions and our mistakes to safeguard our future. Else, there might not be one left for us.