Forty Whales Died in Mass Stranding on Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Approximately 40 whales died in a mass stranding on 25 October 2012 on the west coast of remote North Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal

The short-finned pilot stranded whales were found by fishermen in Port Blair capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
No earlier mass stranding was reported in the Andaman, but it is a natural phenomenon that occurs when whales get disoriented and are unable to swim back into deep water.

The whales are found to be so heavy that it is impossible to move them back to the waters. Also after conducting post-mortem on one of adult’s whales it weighed two tonnes.

About Whale Stranding

A Stranded whale is a whale that has stranded itself on land, usually on a beach. The reason of their death is dehydration, collapsing of body under their own weight or drowning when high tide covers the blowhole. The stranded whale is also referred as beached whale.

There are also many other reasons for whale stranding the major of which are natural and environmental factors, such as rough weather, weakness due to old age or infection, difficulty giving birth, hunting too close to shore and navigation errors.

Some stranding is also caused by larger cetaceans following dolphins and porpoises into shallow coastal waters.

The other reason for stranding is SONAR (Sound, Navigation and Resonance) There is evidence that active sonar leads to beaching. On some occasions whales have stranded shortly after military sonar was active in the area.