Hundreds of whales die in New Zealand

Hundreds of whales die in New Zealand

news.bbc.co.uk

Conservation workers in New Zealand have attempted to coax pilot whales back into the sea, after they got stranded on a beach.

Hundreds of volunteers tried to keep the mammals wet throughout the day.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I think this is new news, i apologise if it is not, or if it has already been mentioned.
Is this a sign that there is about to be a major earthquake in New Zealand, possibly a tsunami? I remember previous threads about how whales have stranded themselves on beaches prior to a massive earthquake, ie Australia and Indonesia. I thought it might be worth bringing up.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

...I hope not...given I live in 'Earthquake Central' aka Wellington, New Zealand...

...we've been expecting *the big one* for some time now...and if it does come, well, we're screwed pretty much...

That is sad news. I think that possibly the polar shift might account for this. Whales and other creatures use magnetic sensing to navigate. Maybe this would cause them to get lost?

reply to post by alien


Well, i've got my little earthquake monitor in firefox, so if you have one i will be sure to let you know! Lol, i'm sorry, that is far from funny. I really hope you don't have one, and if you do, I hope you and your people come through it ok. I have never been through a quake, but its sickening how much harm they can cause. The UK rarely has them, there is a fault line just out to sea from me, I know there was one in 1975 in Carlisle, 30 miles from me, and only a few months ago in Barrow, about 50 miles away, I swear I feel very mild shaking every now and again when i'm lying in bed, but nothing drastic here. In a way I thank god as only 20 or so miles away is the worlds largest nuclear dump, sorry, reprocessing plant, Sellafield. Stay safe.

reply to post by xizd1


That is sound reasoning, but as far as i'm aware the polar shift is currently only moving as fast as it always has, so i'm sure the marine life and birds will be adapting as they always [seem to] do. At least until 2012 and the people who are in the polar shift corner of the debate turn out to be right.

Were there any naval exercises going on? The sonar the ships use blasts the whales & blows out their ears. A lot of different types of whales have died b/c of this (beaked whales in the Bahamas a few years back, for ex).

Another possibility is something that Dr. Pete Peterson said. He said cetaceans are beaching themselves on purpose b/c there's not enough food to go around.

At 57:00 ~

reply to post by someotherguy


The sonar I could agree with to some extent, it's like bats that attack you because you make a sound similar to an insect and it thinks you are food, only i imagine over a greater range underwater (i am not suggesting that whales think of sonar producing instruments as food, i mean it will have some effect on them), but short food supply? no, in nature it is survival of the fittest, if the food supply is running low, ie the plankton like the guy in the video said, which by the way, i seriously doubt, then i pretty much believe the whales will fight it out rather than beach themselves.

[edit on 29/12/09 by woogleuk]