100+ whales, dolphins die in Australia beachings

In Australia, whales and dolphins are beaching themselves in huge numbers.
King Island off Australia's south coast had over 80 whales and dolphins die and 53 long-finned pilot whales became stranded on Maria Island off the east coast of Tasmania,.

Reuters Alertnet
SYDNEY, Nov 29 (Reuters) - More than 100 whales and dolphins died in two separate beachings in 24 hours on remote Australian islands, leaving rescuers on Monday struggling to steer survivors out to sea and prevent more strandings.

Is there sonar testing going on in Australia right now?

There was a problem in the Bahamas a while ago with whales and dolphins beaching themselves and it was due to the military (not Bahamian) testing sonar in that area. They had internal hemorrhaging as a result of the sonar testing.
Earthwatch: Findings Link Sonar Tests to Whale Strandings, Bahamas (2001)

I certainly hope that there will be testing done on these mammals, for that many to beach themselfs would take Sonar to do this. Damn what a waste of life for military purposes. (testing)

I hope its nothing like that, but i think it comes down to whale behaviour, if one gets disorientated and beaches its distress calls bring others which suffer the same fate, caught by tides. Very sad , I wonder how much is due to beach erosion, altering the coastline and creating unusual currents?

Instar, good concept, but I again I think that as much force that is being pushed to the bottem of the sea, it would cause the same affect if you were in a room and have a source of disturbing sound, would you not attempt to leave that pain? Whereever you need to find it... I know that I'd find a recourse. There has to be a better way for the Navy to explore whats a treat on our behalf.

It's not the first time we have seen this happen, not to mention those mysterious bird crashes. Am I the only one with a gut feeling terrible incidents like these are HAARP related????

Those poor creatures Man I'm so pissed at mankind right now

Not sure if its sonar activity in this case, I don't think theres much going on (Naval-wise) in that area. A whole bunch of RAN assets are in and around Fleet Base West at the moment (which is a hell of a long way from Tasmania). I would have thought the rest would be busy to the north or in the Gulf. At least not running excercises down there.

Beachings are a reasonably common thing, just a high death toll this time makes bigger news.

Who-ever is at fault, it will not bring the creatures back, Those creatures played a big part in our life. Without us seeing their efforts to maintain their life, while making ours better, we ignore the life source that has been given to them. The ability to Breath from the water that they exist in...
AS humans, we continue to take that away, in both, Water/Land life forms... The same results will continue unless we see beyond what needs to be important to maintain this Earth!

[edit on 29-11-2004 by jessemole]

Just a thought that the massive stranding of whales/dolphins might be as well having something to do with the communicational or radar frequencys coming from submarines.
Has someone outta there a statistic when this whale standing started and if it has increased during the last 60 years or so?

Most beachings seem to happen in areas where seismic operations are taking place. Internal papers in the oil and gas industries have known of this for several years.

Respects,

I was just watching the late news and some oil or gas company confirmed that seismic testing took
place on Sat' 27th and Sun' 28th in Bass Straight. These beachings took place soon afterwards.

Sorry, i don't have a link as it was on t.v. but if i find one i'll post it.

Sanc'.

sanctum, thanks for that update, I don't question your info, it only confirms my thought.
Have there been any efforts to determine by Autopsy(?sp) of enternal reasons? I suspect that information will be long coming...

I couldn't find anything regarding the oil/gas company, but i found this.
Whale strandings linked to quakes

A marine biologist from the International University of the Sea believes scientists may be able to prevent future whale and dolphin strandings by studying the affect of earthquakes.

Biologist Eric Mitran, based in Queensland, thinks there is a link between recent earth tremors in New Zealand and Tasmania and three strandings in the areas this week which caused the deaths of more than 150 whales and dolphins.

He says migrating animals, like birds and marine animals, follow magnetic field lines on the sea's surface which could be modified during an earthquake, throwing them off course.

Dr Mitran doubts seismic testing for oil and gas could affect the magnetic field lines.

www.abc.net.au...

Hmmm, "thinks, doubts"...nothing more than a hypothetical really.

Whale autopsy results months away

"We've taken a number of samples for autopsies - it's going to take us a little while to get them processed," he said.

"It's a bit hard to put a definite time frame on it...the blubber samples should be analysed within the next six months and hopefully we'll get the heads analysed over a similar sort of time frame."

www.abc.net.au...

Sanc'.

Originally posted by 1amc
Most beachings seem to happen in areas where seismic operations are taking place. Internal papers in the oil and gas industries have known of this for several years.

Respects,

Yeah seismic testing could very well be responsible. The blasts send out sound waves at well over 100dB, for a large distance.

Here's a link on the seismic testing:

News.com.au
Nature Conservation Branch marine biologist Rosemary Gales said it was difficult to tell whether seismic testing had played any role in the two latest strandings.

"Overseas there have been some links between seismic testing and strandings, but not all testing uses the same frequency," Ms Gales said.

"We will be testing for any signs of auditory damage, but it is very hard to detect."

Gas giant Santos confirmed yesterday it had conducted a seismic program in the waters off the Victorian-South Australian border which finished on Friday.

Another program had begun on Saturday off the coast of Robe, south-east of Adelaide.

I think that may be more likely than earthquakes, even though the companies doing the testing say it wasn't their testing that caused the beaching.

[edit on 1-12-2004 by AceOfBase]

Well, It could explain the reason for them heading to shore, however I don't think so... My reasons for thinking this is not the case, is because why is it only affecting Whales/Dolphines and no other species? Both Whales and Dolphines have a Sonar ability that they use in various ways... I'm compelled to believe Seismic activity by Oil or Military was the cause. In order for them to avoid a outcry from Greenpeace and others, its always good to have a theory backed up by a Marine Biologist that earthquakes are the reasons. Come on, how is it that scientist could prevent future strandings by studying the affects of earthquakes. It sounds to me a good ploy to get grants from those that are in fact The cause.
I will believe it once I see detail of Scientist herding up all of the mammals and putting ear plug into them...

Again we continue to destroy the life of this earth!

It looks like somebody is trying to limit sonar activities in areas where it may be harmful:

Sanfrancisco Gate (Dec 13)
Two weeks ago, the IUCN-World Conservation Union, a prestigious group of 70 nations and 400 nongovernmental organizations meeting in Bangkok, overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging governments to limit the use of loud noise sources in the world's oceans, including military sonar, oil and gas exploration and commercial shipping, until the effects are better understood. The United States abstained from the vote.

This is a step in the right direction

[edit on 14-12-2004 by AceOfBase]

Well it continues on the shores of VA.... why are these mammals herding to the shores.. Regardless of the type of mammals that take refuge on dry land, tells me it's ugly within the oceans for them... What going on?

Yeah when i heard this on the news about a month ago it concerd me. dont u find it odd that all these whales got beached in austrlia and if i remember correctly new zealand, then a few weeks later the tsunami hits? I think the 2 are related, when i first heard the whale story i got a sense that something bad was going to happen soon. Could this only be the start of a flux of natural disasters?

wang, good point, As it's held true, most aniamls, as well as ocean life can detect a pending threat to them and are confused as to how to handle it...
Mine would be to run or find a way out of this pending threat.
There is a reason, some of us see it, the others one's wish to keep it quiet... whats a few whales after all, B@@tards anyway!


[edit on 17-1-2005 by jessemole]

Yeah thats rights, if a couple of whales had beached it would of raised no concern, but over 100 whales dont just get lost without a dam good reason. I just hope i dont see similar things on the news to soon, or i might start believing in revelations