whales beach themselves on St. Martin..why?

[msbee]

(11-25) 11:45 PST MARIGOT, St. Martin (AP) --

Thirty-six whales beached themselves on the coast of this Caribbean island and died within hours despite the efforts of people who tried to push some back out to sea.

The short-finned pilot whales were believed to have beached themselves Monday night, and by noon Tuesday all were dead.

The animals were found before dawn by a man on his way to a dump in the French Caribbean territory, which shares an island with Dutch St. Maarten. Residents and tourists later gathered around the whales, which were up to 15 feet long.

People were able to push two whales back into the water, but they returned and beached themselves again, appearing exhausted, said Paul Ellinger, of the St. Maarten Nature Foundation. He said it seemed the whales had become disoriented.

"What's clear is that they got off course. What caused them to go off course? We'll have to check," Ellinger said. "It could be all kinds of reasons; the temperature of the water, their sonar system. It could have been anything."

Short-finned pilot whales usually swim in pods, and when a leader goes astray the entire pod often follows, Ellinger said.

Biologists were keeping three carcasses to investigate.

The whales covered the beach along the shallow Grand Cailles Bay, the mouth of which is fringed with coral reefs. The whales bore injuries apparently sustained when they ran aground.

French police arrived Tuesday morning and closed off the spot as workers dug beach-side graves to bury the remaining whales.

[DaylilyDawn]

That is such a shame!

[msbee]

It really is a shame!
I know there is no solid evidence as to what causes these animals to beach themselves. I have heard talk about sonar activiites of the U.S. Navy possibly causing problems.
I have another theory and I wonder if it has ever been thought of.
We had an earthquake here on Saturday night. it was centerd 35 KM East of us and was felt on the island.. it was not a very strong earthquake but it jolted us a little.
Could earthquake tremors cause disorientation to any whales in the area?
Isn't a tremor sort of like sonar?
It crossed my mind as a remote possiblity.
Do any of you have any ideas about that?

[mf_dolphin]

Msbee the Navy SONAR that has been causing a stir has been limited in use due to the concerns about the imapct on marine life. I doubt that this was the cause in this instance. You do bring up a possibility though with the earthquake. Earth quakes can cause temporary shifts in the earth's magnetic field. That could be one possible explaination. I guess it just goes to show how little we know about our own environment...

[Stephanie]

Unfortunately, it's something that occurs all over. That truly is a sad story!

[breeze]

Earthquakes can definitely cause land animals
to act "strange", or different - we know this. I
suspect that marine life can be affected, as well.
Very interesting story, msbee!

[msbee]

this link was sent to me by someone at the Seismic research Unit in Trinidad who is reserving judgment but is keeping an open mind on the possibility.
http://www.deafwhale.com/stranding/evolution.html

the article states in part:

For many years the Deafwhale Society refused to believe that there might be some grand effort to keep the truth about seaquakes and stranded whales from the public, but we have become convinced over the last few years that this is indeed going on. The big question you might ask here is if seaquake generated pressure waves are the source of barotraumatic injury resulting in a mass stranding as the Deafwhale Society suggest, then why would special interest groups not want to public to find out? The answer is simple: underwater earthquakes and air cannons used to explore for oil and powerful navy sonar units produce almost identical pressure waves. In fact, oil industry air cannons and navy sonars are nothing more than controlled seaquakes. If the public learns that pressure waves from seaquakes causes barotrauma in marine mammals, resulting in their eventually death, how long would it take them to realize that oil exploration and navy sonar are equally as dangerous? Not long. The navy and the oil industry fear what the public might do with full knowledge of the destruction nature of man-made pressure waves. Since the navy and the oil industry contribute 97% of all research funds spent to study marine mammals, the lead marine mammal scientists feeding at the trough along with the publishers of the scientific journals covering the field of study are both afraid to say or do anything that might upset their wealthy benefactors. Many money hungry scientists and journal editors are willing to lie outright and attempt to turn the public away from the truth to win favor and a chance for a bigger slice of the money. Therefore, few marine mammal scientists looking for any kind of research grant will associate themselves with seaquake injured whales. Rather, they promote other theories that might turn the public away from the truth. The Deafwhale Society does not advocate for the band on anything. Our goal is to tell the public the truth and let them decide how far they are willing to go to protect marine mammals. What we detest more than anything else is lying to the public about the dangers involved in oil exploration and the use of high powered sonar units. We say tell the truth and let the public decide.