Is New Zealand earthquake linked to the mysterious deaths of more than 100 pilot whales?

Is New Zealand earthquake linked to the mysterious deaths of more than 100 pilot whales?

www.mirror.co.uk

Twitter was awash today with theories that the bizarre deaths of more than 100 stranded pilot whales in New Zealand may have been a warning that an earthquake was going to hit.

There have been TWO mass whale deaths on NZ’s South Island in less than three weeks.

In the latest bizarre incident on Sunday, less than 48 hours before the earthquake hit, a pod of whales beached themselves near Cavalier Creek on Stewart Island.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow...

This is a very interesting development.... The question is... IS there a correlation?

It appears that there is one, but I'm not sure about these things. Anyone on here who is an expert in these matters? Not the armchair variety but an actual marine biologist or geologist or a synthesis of the two?



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

reply to post by HunkaHunka


You have to be careful when looking for correlation. There isn't necessarily causation just because there's correlation. For example, if there's a correlation between the number of ice cream purchases made, and the number of rapes reported we can't assume ice cream causes rape. We may need to look at the fact that during the summer more people eat ice cream due to the heat. Also, more people are outside and active, and also have their windows or doors open because of the same heat; this makes it easier for the crime to occur.

There may very well be causation here with the whales, but it's important to keep an open mind and remember that there very well could be no causation at all.

It is a curious situation though...

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Stewart island is right at the bottom of NZ.

Christchurch is half way up the south island

That's a good distance apart so I fail to see how they're related.

Originally posted by Dachende
reply to post by HunkaHunka

 

Stewart island is right at the bottom of NZ.

Christchurch is half way up the south island

That's a good distance apart so I fail to see how they're related.

They are about 7.5 hours away by car (with a ferry in there). However, if you look at the map of where the coastal shelf is, its a straight line down to Stewart Island...

How fast do Pilot whales swim? (I sound like a monty python skit)

Distance is relative to that which moves between it. For a person, yeah that's a fair bit of distance... however for a Pilot whale it may not be... perhaps there was a gas bubble released which effected them in such a way that they were able to make it from one point to the other.

UPDATE:

here is what WikiPedia says about Pilot Whales being stranded

Of the cetaceans, pilot whales are among the most common stranders. Because of their strong social bonds, whole groups of pilot whales will strand. Single stranders have been recorded and these are usually diseased. Group stranding tends to be of mostly healthly individuals. It is not known what causes these animals to strand but there are different hypotheses. It has been suggested that the animals may get confused or trapped in shallow water, that geomagnetic anomalies may disorient the whale if they are using the earth's magnetic field for navigation or that a sick individual gets stranded and the group follows.

So it looks like any kind of geomagnetic change COULD have caused this issue... now in regards to the distance between Stewart Island and Christschurch as it relates to geomagnetism.... that seems like a rather small distance now to me.

I knew they are sensitive to magnetic changes and such for navigation.
Never knew it could be tied together in this manner.

S & F

reply to post by SLAYER69


Is there anyway to measure, track or or otherwise view what these geomagnetic forces look like. For example, if we wanted to predict the migration of those animals which use this, (could be all), is there a way for us to see where those lines are?

reply to post by HunkaHunka


I would like to know that also!

I have also wondered about this. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread to see what theories come out of it.

Originally posted by Mapkar
reply to post by HunkaHunka

 

You have to be careful when looking for correlation. There isn't necessarily causation just because there's correlation. For example, if there's a correlation between the number of ice cream purchases made, and the number of rapes reported we can't assume ice cream causes rape. We may need to look at the fact that during the summer more people eat ice cream due to the heat. Also, more people are outside and active, and also have their windows or doors open because of the same heat; this makes it easier for the crime to occur.

There may very well be causation here with the whales, but it's important to keep an open mind and remember that there very well could be no causation at all.

It is a curious situation though...

I don't think anyone is thinking that one caused the other... I think the correlation here is that they are both potentially caused by the same thing... in which case the cause would be "unknown"

This supposed correlation has been discussed several times. Here is a response of mine from this thread:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Phage

Originally posted by questioningall


As I had said in the last "beachings" thread, it makes sense that whales would hear the grindings of the earth. Obviously something is bothering them, where they want to commit suicide.

Cetaceans have been around for quite a while. So have earthquakes. Not a very good survival strategy to commit mass suicide just because an earthquake might occur (that is, of course, assuming that they know about it).

Wouldn't it make more sense to just leave the area? Sea creatures are pretty unlimited when it comes to traveling a pretty good distance in the course of a few days.

It might make an interesting study though. Why not see if you can come up with some real numbers; distance from the epicenter, magnitude of the quake, "forewarning" period. Things like that.

The thing is, if cetaceans do use magnetic influences for navigation, it is not the only thing they use. Echolocation and vision would be enough to prevent them from accidental beaching even if there were magnetic precursors to an earthquake strong enough to "disrupt" their magnetic sense (if they have one). The idea of "suicide" is a bit silly.

It's hard not to connect the two events somehow.

I just have a hard time wondering why they tend to do that though? What's an earthquake to oceanic creatures? I mean, how would that affect them?

I have a feeling their sonar gets all messed up.

I just posted a thread about more possible earthquakes in the next few days due to a planetary alignment so let's hope both animals and Humans will be okay.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Here' a list of whale strandings in New Zealand 1978-2004 - www.teara.govt.nz...

How would we know which ones to pay more attention to?

New Zealand gets 15,000 measurable earthquakesper year - most of which are not felt by humans. "Several" per annum are magnitude 6 or bigger, about 1 every 10 years magnitude 7.

And the cause was the electromagnetic field, or rather, THE POLE SHIFT.