<p>A <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/beluga-whale-with-russian-harness-raises-alarm-in-norway-214660">beluga whale</a> from the coast of Norway is making headlines on social media for an unusual act.</p>

<p>The whale helped a woman in getting back her phone which she had dropped in the water.</p>

<p>In a video posted on Instagram, the whale is seen coming out of the sea with a phone in its mouth. The woman then takes over the phone and greets the whale.</p>

<p>The video&nbsp;captioned, "when animals are kinder than humans" was posted on the social networking site by Isa Opdahl on May 5.</p>

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<p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BxFlIZpAT7a/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">when animals are kinder than humans 💖🐳 #beluga #whale This video is being represented by LADbible Group. To use or license this video please email&nbsp;licensing@ladbiblegroup.com</a></p>

<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/isa.opdahl/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> ISA OPDAHL LARSSON | 21</a> (@isa.opdahl) on <time datetime="2019-05-05T16:20:23+00:00" style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;">May 5, 2019 at 9:20am PDT</time></p>
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<p>Some reports are also speculating that the whale is the same animal&nbsp;who was accused of spying for Russia.</p>

<p>Some fishermen in Norway had stumbled upon a white beluga whale with a tight harness, which they said&nbsp;appeared to be Russian made. The captured whale had&nbsp;raised alarm in Norway and prompted speculation that the animal may have escaped from a Russian military facility.</p>

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A beluga whale from the coast of Norway is making headlines on social media for an unusual act. The whale helped a woman in getting back her phone which she had dropped in the water.

A beluga whale from the coast of Norway is making headlines on social media for an unusual act. The whale helped a woman in getting back her phone which she had dropped in the water. In a video posted on Instagram, the whale is seen coming out of the sea with a phone in its mouth. The woman then takes over the phone and greets the whale. The video captioned, "when animals are kinder than humans" was posted on the social networking site by Isa Opdahl on May 5. View this post on Instagram when animals are kinder than humans 💖🐳 #beluga #whale This video is being represented by LADbible Group. To use or license this video please email licensing@ladbiblegroup.com A post shared by ISA OPDAHL LARSSON | 21 (@isa.opdahl) on May 5, 2019 at 9:20am PDT × Some reports are also speculating that the whale is the same animal who was accused of spying for Russia. Some fishermen in Norway had stumbled upon a white beluga whale with a tight harness, which they said appeared to be Russian made. The captured whale had raised alarm in Norway and prompted speculation that the animal may have escaped from a Russian military facility.

Watch: Beluga whale dives into sea to get phone dropped by owner in Norway

<p>A 40-feet-long endangered whale was washed ashore in an estuary close to Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in Odisha's Kendrapara district, Forest department officials said Saturday.</p>

<p>The gargantuan mammal weighed around 12 tonne. "It has become an uphill task for the Forest personnel to extricate the mammals body from the estuary near Talchua coast. We are planning to press into service a crane to remove the marine animals body," said Forest Range Officer, Subrat Patra.</p>

<p>The whale was washed ashore on Friday.</p>

<p>The mammal's body bore injury marks. The species figures in the list of threatened marine species. The mammal is a schedule-I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. We are still undecided whether to bury the carcass after its post mortem, said the forest official.</p>

<p>As there are injury marks, the mammal might have perished after being hit by either ship or trawl propellers.</p>

<p>After necessary legal formalities like post mortem examination is over, we would seek suggestion from department high-ups regarding preservation of the skeletal remains of the whale, he said.</p>

<p>Many curious villagers including fishermen thronged the estuary site to witness the giant whale.</p>

<p>The whale is in decomposed state and had scars and evidence of entanglements. Entanglements are common with this particular type of species because of their feeding habits, according to Forest officials.&nbsp;</p>


A 40-feet-long endangered whale was washed ashore in an estuary close to Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in Odisha's Kendrapara district, Forest department officials said Saturday.

A 40-feet-long endangered whale was washed ashore in an estuary close to Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in Odisha's Kendrapara district, Forest department officials said Saturday. The gargantuan mammal weighed around 12 tonne. "It has become an uphill task for the Forest personnel to extricate the mammals body from the estuary near Talchua coast. We are planning to press into service a crane to remove the marine animals body," said Forest Range Officer, Subrat Patra. The whale was washed ashore on Friday. The mammal's body bore injury marks. The species figures in the list of threatened marine species. The mammal is a schedule-I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. We are still undecided whether to bury the carcass after its post mortem, said the forest official. As there are injury marks, the mammal might have perished after being hit by either ship or trawl propellers. After necessary legal formalities like post mortem examination is over, we would seek suggestion from department high-ups regarding preservation of the skeletal remains of the whale, he said. Many curious villagers including fishermen thronged the estuary site to witness the giant whale. The whale is in decomposed state and had scars and evidence of entanglements. Entanglements are common with this particular type of species because of their feeding habits, according to Forest officials.

Giant whale washed ashore in Odisha

<p>All but six of more than 150 short-finned pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach in Western Australia have died, despite efforts from authorities and local beachgoers to save them, officials said on Saturday.</p>

<p>The marine mammals stranded themselves in Hamelin Bay, 315 km (198 miles) south of the state&#39;s capital, Perth, between March 22 and 23.</p>

<p>Authorities, veterinarians and locals who were visiting the beach attempted to save 15 of the migrating cetaceans in shallow waters, however, only seven were able to successfully be placed back in the water.</p>

<p>A spokeswoman from Western Australia&#39;s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions said one whale beached itself again and had to be euthanised. So far, the remaining six whales appear to have survived although incident controller Jeremy Chick said they could attempt to beach themselves at another location.</p>

<p>Pilot whales, which are part of the dolphin family, weigh between one and four tons each, providing a logistical challenge to local authorities, who are now working on disposing of the carcasses.</p>

<p>While whales regularly get stranded on the coastal strip migrating between Antarctic feeding grounds in the south and warmer northern waters where they raise their young, the large number this time is unusual.</p>

<p>There was a previously recorded mass stranding in 1996 when 320 long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves just north of Hamelin Bay and died.</p>

<p>Locals and tourists have been warned to stay out of the water due to a likely increase in sharks attracted by the dead whales. The beach has been temporarily closed while authorities dispose of the deceased whales.</p>


All but six of more than 150 short-finned pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach in Western Australia have died, despite efforts from authorities and local beachgoers to save them, officials said on Saturday

All but six of more than 150 short-finned pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach in Western Australia have died, despite efforts from authorities and local beachgoers to save them, officials said on Saturday. The marine mammals stranded themselves in Hamelin Bay, 315 km (198 miles) south of the state's capital, Perth, between March 22 and 23. Authorities, veterinarians and locals who were visiting the beach attempted to save 15 of the migrating cetaceans in shallow waters, however, only seven were able to successfully be placed back in the water. A spokeswoman from Western Australia's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions said one whale beached itself again and had to be euthanised. So far, the remaining six whales appear to have survived although incident controller Jeremy Chick said they could attempt to beach themselves at another location. Pilot whales, which are part of the dolphin family, weigh between one and four tons each, providing a logistical challenge to local authorities, who are now working on disposing of the carcasses. While whales regularly get stranded on the coastal strip migrating between Antarctic feeding grounds in the south and warmer northern waters where they raise their young, the large number this time is unusual. There was a previously recorded mass stranding in 1996 when 320 long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves just north of Hamelin Bay and died. Locals and tourists have been warned to stay out of the water due to a likely increase in sharks attracted by the dead whales. The beach has been temporarily closed while authorities dispose of the deceased whales.

Whales die after mass stranding in Australia

<p>Abhishek Jalalabad spent the 23rd of March, 2016 praying that he did not see a whale at the Palolem beach in south Goa. Just a day earlier, a local branch of conservation group &#39;World Wild Fund&#39;&nbsp;got in touch with him. It was a distress call. They wanted his help in rescuing an eight-foot dwarf sperm whale.<br />
<br />
Jalalabad, a marine scientist, rushed to Palolem beach. By then, tourists and lifeguards had managed to release the whale into the Arabian Sea. But he stayed back on a hunch and the rescuer&#39;s worst fears came true at about midnight.<br />
<br />
The eight-foot whale returned to the shore in the dark of the night. Roughly 20 minutes after Jalalabad and his colleague, assisted by tourists, sent it back into the water, the whale beached again. This time, it lay still, dead.<br />
<br />
This was one of the roughly 90 reported cases of whale and dolphin strandings along the Indian shores in the past 20 months.<br />
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More than 13,000 kilometres away from Goa is California&rsquo;s Pacifica Beach. Nicole Strasser was heading home after her night shift at the hospital&nbsp;when she experienced a nasty stench in the parking lot. Something was afloat on the beach. To her dismay it was a dead whale -- the second she saw in a matter of weeks.<br />
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<img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/pic_1-20160922111054.jpg" />When WION spoke to Strasser, she was anxious. Last year she had spotted hundreds of whales in the sea. This year she has only seen dead ones.<br />
<br />
More and more mass whale and dolphin strandings are being reported the world over. Once beached, they face the risk of injury and death from dehydration. However, January was especially baffling for marine scientists in India. More than a hundred short-finned pilot whales &ndash; a species of dolphins &ndash; were found stranded along a 15-kilometre stretch of a beach in Tamil Nadu on the east coast of India, of which 45 died.</p>

<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/image_1-20160922110520.jpg" /><br />
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N Vasudevan, a conservationist for the Indian state of Maharashtra that flanks the western coast, told WION, &quot;The numbers are unusually high. Earlier, we rarely saw so many whales being washed ashore. We cannot say what is causing this.&rdquo;</p>

<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/map_dolphin_whales_02-20160922105802.jpg" /></p>

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No marine scientist can pinpoint the exact cause behind cetacean stranding. Giuseppe Notabartolo di Sciara is the president of Tethys Research Institute in Milan that is a non-profit organisation supporting marine conservation through science and public awareness.<br />
<br />
&quot;The news about whales and dolphins washing up dead in India in increasing numbers is worrisome. It is clear that there isn&#39;t a single agent at work, but multiple causes, and each event has its own story,&rdquo; di Sciara said.<br />
<br />
&quot;We humans are forgetting that all our activities conducted in unsustainable ways at sea are destroying not only the animal world, but our world as well,&quot; di Sciara added.<br />
<br />
Human disruptions also cost lives with dolphins getting caught-up in fishing lines and dying. A baby dolphin died after it was scooped out of shallow water by a swimmer and passed around at a beach in Argentina by a mob intent on clicking selfies with it.<br />
<br />
In 2015, scientists made a grim discovery in Patagonia, southern Chile: 337 dead Sei whales. This is the world&#39;s biggest mass whale stranding event ever recorded.<br />
<br />
A year on, investigators still have no explanation. Professor di Sciara speculated that the large number of dead whales in Chile must have a single cause, whereas it was &ldquo;very likely&quot;&nbsp;that the increase of dead whales in India is due to human activities, like plastic waste disposal in the sea, overfishing and underwater sonar&rdquo;.</p>

<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/world_whales_dolphins_infographics-20160922112144.jpg" /></p>

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<p>In 2004, the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission concluded&nbsp;that &ldquo;there is now compelling evidence about military sonar having a direct impact on the beaked whales&rdquo;.<br />
<br />
In 2001, the US&nbsp;Navy acknowledged that its active sonar played a role in the stranding deaths of 14 beaked whales, two minke whales, and a dolphin in the Bahamas in 2000. Autopsies of the beaked whales revealed that the animals had suffered acoustic trauma resulting in hemorrhaging around the brain, in the inner ears, and in the acoustic fats located in the head that are involved in sound transmission.<br />
<br />
Dr&nbsp;N Ramaiah, chief scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography, however, felt behavioral patterns could be a possible factor in the mass stranding of 45 pilot whales in India this year. &quot;As these pilot whales move in large groups, each pod has a leader. Sometimes they land up on the shore while following their leader that may have lost its way due to disorientation,&rdquo; he said.</p>

<p>Mass strandings may not even be a true indicator of what&#39;s going on in the ocean. Clare Embling, lecturer of Marine Ecology at Plymouth University in the United Kingdom, said stranding &quot;is always difficult to place in context&nbsp;because only a small number that die will strand&quot;. Many big mammals sink, and where they die in relation to ocean currents, can influence how many strand. Seeing 30 sperm whales strand is upsetting, but it is difficult to know whether it is a fluke climatic event that caused it, or something more alarming.&quot;<br />
<br />
One major factor, however, is plastic. It is found floating in all the world&rsquo;s oceans. Among 10 species of baleen whales, 60 per cent have been found to be tangled in ocean debris, while 20 per cent have ingested plastic or other waste by mistake. The study of 65 different species of toothed whales by environmental group Greenpeace reveals that 8 per cent managed to entangle themselves in ocean waste, another 32 per cent ended up ingesting plastic dumped in the ocean.<br />
<br />
Kumaran Sathasivam, coordinator of the Marine Mammal Conservation Network of India, said: &quot;Whales and dolphins consume plastic in the ocean thinking it is food. The ocean is already so polluted and it will take a lot of time for all this plastic to deteriorate.&quot; But to reduce all cetacean strandings to one cause is difficult without proper statistics, experts say. &nbsp;<br />
<br />
Independent marine ecologist, Dipani Sutaria, says, &quot;A concerted effort to document and publicise these [stranding] events has begun only since 2013. We now have researchers or interested individuals all along the west coast.&quot; Sutaria points out that 11 Baleen whales were found stranded in 2015 on the west coast of India -- eight in Maharashtra and three in Gujarat. &nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
Sutaria believes the number of cases reported is directly proportionate to the response network on the coasts. There are fisher-folk, tourists, forest department staff, independent researchers, and local organisations that pass on information in case a marine mammal washes ashore. &nbsp;<br />
<br />
While this mysterious uptick of beached whales is recent, the phenomenon itself is surprisingly old. Evidence of mass beaching has puzzled scientists as far back as 300 BC. &ldquo;It is not known why they sometimes run aground on the seashore,&rdquo; said Greek philosopher Aristotle. &ldquo;It is asserted that this happens when the fancy takes them and without any apparent reason.&quot; &nbsp;<br />
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(WION) &nbsp;<br />
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Dead whales, dolphins wash up on beaches from India to California and nobody knows why. Can anything save them?

Abhishek Jalalabad spent the 23rd of March, 2016 praying that he did not see a whale at the Palolem beach in south Goa. Just a day earlier, a local branch of conservation group 'World Wild Fund' got in touch with him. It was a distress call. They wanted his help in rescuing an eight-foot dwarf sperm whale. Jalalabad, a marine scientist, rushed to Palolem beach. By then, tourists and lifeguards had managed to release the whale into the Arabian Sea. But he stayed back on a hunch and the rescuer's worst fears came true at about midnight. The eight-foot whale returned to the shore in the dark of the night. Roughly 20 minutes after Jalalabad and his colleague, assisted by tourists, sent it back into the water, the whale beached again. This time, it lay still, dead. This was one of the roughly 90 reported cases of whale and dolphin strandings along the Indian shores in the past 20 months. More than 13,000 kilometres away from Goa is California’s Pacifica Beach. Nicole Strasser was heading home after her night shift at the hospital when she experienced a nasty stench in the parking lot. Something was afloat on the beach. To her dismay it was a dead whale -- the second she saw in a matter of weeks. When WION spoke to Strasser, she was anxious. Last year she had spotted hundreds of whales in the sea. This year she has only seen dead ones. More and more mass whale and dolphin strandings are being reported the world over. Once beached, they face the risk of injury and death from dehydration. However, January was especially baffling for marine scientists in India. More than a hundred short-finned pilot whales – a species of dolphins – were found stranded along a 15-kilometre stretch of a beach in Tamil Nadu on the east coast of India, of which 45 died. N Vasudevan, a conservationist for the Indian state of Maharashtra that flanks the western coast, told WION, "The numbers are unusually high. Earlier, we rarely saw so many whales being washed ashore. We cannot say what is causing this.” No marine scientist can pinpoint the exact cause behind cetacean stranding. Giuseppe Notabartolo di Sciara is the president of Tethys Research Institute in Milan that is a non-profit organisation supporting marine conservation through science and public awareness. "The news about whales and dolphins washing up dead in India in increasing numbers is worrisome. It is clear that there isn't a single agent at work, but multiple causes, and each event has its own story,” di Sciara said. "We humans are forgetting that all our activities conducted in unsustainable ways at sea are destroying not only the animal world, but our world as well," di Sciara added. Human disruptions also cost lives with dolphins getting caught-up in fishing lines and dying. A baby dolphin died after it was scooped out of shallow water by a swimmer and passed around at a beach in Argentina by a mob intent on clicking selfies with it. In 2015, scientists made a grim discovery in Patagonia, southern Chile: 337 dead Sei whales. This is the world's biggest mass whale stranding event ever recorded. A year on, investigators still have no explanation. Professor di Sciara speculated that the large number of dead whales in Chile must have a single cause, whereas it was “very likely" that the increase of dead whales in India is due to human activities, like plastic waste disposal in the sea, overfishing and underwater sonar”. In 2004, the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission concluded that “there is now compelling evidence about military sonar having a direct impact on the beaked whales”. In 2001, the US Navy acknowledged that its active sonar played a role in the stranding deaths of 14 beaked whales, two minke whales, and a dolphin in the Bahamas in 2000. Autopsies of the beaked whales revealed that the animals had suffered acoustic trauma resulting in hemorrhaging around the brain, in the inner ears, and in the acoustic fats located in the head that are involved in sound transmission. Dr N Ramaiah, chief scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography, however, felt behavioral patterns could be a possible factor in the mass stranding of 45 pilot whales in India this year. "As these pilot whales move in large groups, each pod has a leader. Sometimes they land up on the shore while following their leader that may have lost its way due to disorientation,” he said. Mass strandings may not even be a true indicator of what's going on in the ocean. Clare Embling, lecturer of Marine Ecology at Plymouth University in the United Kingdom, said stranding "is always difficult to place in context because only a small number that die will strand". Many big mammals sink, and where they die in relation to ocean currents, can influence how many strand. Seeing 30 sperm whales strand is upsetting, but it is difficult to know whether it is a fluke climatic event that caused it, or something more alarming." One major factor, however, is plastic. It is found floating in all the world’s oceans. Among 10 species of baleen whales, 60 per cent have been found to be tangled in ocean debris, while 20 per cent have ingested plastic or other waste by mistake. The study of 65 different species of toothed whales by environmental group Greenpeace reveals that 8 per cent managed to entangle themselves in ocean waste, another 32 per cent ended up ingesting plastic dumped in the ocean. Kumaran Sathasivam, coordinator of the Marine Mammal Conservation Network of India, said: "Whales and dolphins consume plastic in the ocean thinking it is food. The ocean is already so polluted and it will take a lot of time for all this plastic to deteriorate." But to reduce all cetacean strandings to one cause is difficult without proper statistics, experts say. Independent marine ecologist, Dipani Sutaria, says, "A concerted effort to document and publicise these [stranding] events has begun only since 2013. We now have researchers or interested individuals all along the west coast." Sutaria points out that 11 Baleen whales were found stranded in 2015 on the west coast of India -- eight in Maharashtra and three in Gujarat. Sutaria believes the number of cases reported is directly proportionate to the response network on the coasts. There are fisher-folk, tourists, forest department staff, independent researchers, and local organisations that pass on information in case a marine mammal washes ashore. While this mysterious uptick of beached whales is recent, the phenomenon itself is surprisingly old. Evidence of mass beaching has puzzled scientists as far back as 300 BC. “It is not known why they sometimes run aground on the seashore,” said Greek philosopher Aristotle. “It is asserted that this happens when the fancy takes them and without any apparent reason." (WION)

Death in deep blue seas: Sharp spike in dolphin, whale deaths

<div paraeid="{05f3f4ba-6c27-4e34-b44d-90488c3797f0}{222}" paraid="738038165">On&nbsp;March 23,&nbsp;Abhishek Jalalabad&nbsp;spent the day&nbsp;practically praying&nbsp;that he did not&nbsp;see a whale in the waters of&nbsp;Palolem&nbsp;beach in South Goa. A day earlier a local branch of the conservation group, World Wild Fund, got in touch with him. It was a distress call.&nbsp;They wanted help rescuing an eight-foot&nbsp;dwarf&nbsp;sperm whale.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{05f3f4ba-6c27-4e34-b44d-90488c3797f0}{235}" paraid="1162057803"><br />
Jalalabad, a marine scientist,&nbsp;rushed to&nbsp;Palolem&nbsp;beach. By then, tourists and lifeguards had managed to release the whale into the Arabian Sea. But&nbsp;he&nbsp;stayed back on a hunch&nbsp;and his worst fears came true at about midnight.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{05f3f4ba-6c27-4e34-b44d-90488c3797f0}{247}" paraid="416318180"><br />
The eight-foot whale returned to the shore in the dark of the night. Roughly 20 minutes after Jalalabad and his colleague, assisted by tourists, sent it back into the water, the&nbsp;whale beached&nbsp;again. This&nbsp;time, it lay still, dead.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tm514WannqY" width="560"></iframe>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{1}" paraid="7873198"><br />
This was one of the roughly 90 reported cases of whale and dolphin&nbsp;strandings&nbsp;along the Indian shores in the past&nbsp;16 months.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{13}" paraid="1319860927"><br />
More than 13,000&nbsp;kilometres&nbsp;away from Goa is California&rsquo;s Pacifica Beach. Nicole&nbsp;Strasser&nbsp;was heading home from working the night shift at the hospital, but in the parking lot she noticed a nasty stench. Something was afloat on the beach. To her dismay it was a dead whale --&nbsp;the second she&nbsp;saw in a matter of weeks.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{25}" paraid="1458958582"><br />
When WION spoke to&nbsp;Strasser, she was anxious. Last year she had spotted hundreds of whales in the sea. This year she has only seen dead ones.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{44}" paraid="109128051"><br />
More and more&nbsp;mass whale and dolphin&nbsp;strandings&nbsp;are being reported the world over. Once beached, they face the risk of injury and death from dehydration.&nbsp;However,&nbsp;January&nbsp;was especially baffling for marine scientists in India. More than a hundred short-finned&nbsp;pilot whales &ndash; a species of dolphins &ndash; were found stranded along a 15-kilometre&nbsp;stretch on a beach on the East coast&nbsp;of which 45&nbsp;died.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{61}" paraid="19417065"><br />
N&nbsp;Vasudevan, a conservationist&nbsp;for the&nbsp;Indian state of&nbsp;Maharashtra that flanks the western coast,&nbsp;told WION,&nbsp;&quot;The numbers are&nbsp;unusually high. Earlier, we rarely saw so many whales being washed ashore. We cannot say what is causing this.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{88}" paraid="1509952067"><br />
No marine scientist can pinpoint the exact cause behind cetacean&nbsp;stranding. Giuseppe&nbsp;Notabartolo&nbsp;di&nbsp;Sciara&nbsp;is the&nbsp;president of Tethys Research Institute in Milan&nbsp;that is a non-profit&nbsp;organisation&nbsp;supporting&nbsp;marine conservation through science and public awareness,. &quot;The news about whales and dolphins washing up dead in India in increasing numbers is worrisome. In India, it is clear that there isn&#39;t a single agent at work, but multiple causes, and each event has its own story,&rdquo;&nbsp;di&nbsp;Sciara&nbsp;said.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{102}" paraid="1559345755"><br />
&quot;We humans are forgetting that all our activities conducted in unsustainable ways at sea are destroying not only the animal&nbsp;world,&nbsp;but our world as well,&quot;&nbsp;di&nbsp;Sciara&nbsp;added.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{119}" paraid="327036382"><br />
Human disruptions also cost lives with dolphins getting caught-up in fishing lines and dying. A&nbsp;baby dolphin&nbsp;died after it&nbsp;was&nbsp;scooped out of shallow water by a swimmer&nbsp;and passed around at a beach in&nbsp;Argentina by a mob intent on clicking selfies with it.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{134}" paraid="46539843"><br />
In&nbsp;2015, scientists made a grim discovery in Patagonia, southern Chile: 337 dead&nbsp;Sei&nbsp;whales. This is the world&#39;s biggest mass whale stranding event ever recorded. A year on, investigators still have no explanation. Professor di&nbsp;Sciara&nbsp;speculated&nbsp;that the large number of dead whales in Chile must have a single cause, whereas it&nbsp;was&nbsp;&ldquo;very likely&#39; that the increase of dead whales in India is due to human activities, like plastic waste disposal in the sea,&nbsp;overfishing&nbsp;and underwater sonar&rdquo;.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{157}" paraid="969082255"><br />
In 2004, the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission&nbsp;concluded &ldquo;there is now compelling evidence that military sonar has a direct impact on&nbsp;beaked whales&rdquo;.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{166}" paraid="374851407"><br />
In 2001, the U.S. Navy acknowledged that its active sonar played a role in the stranding deaths of 14 beaked whales, two&nbsp;minke&nbsp;whales, and a dolphin in the Bahamas in 2000. Autopsies of the&nbsp;beaked whales revealed that the animals had suffered acoustic trauma resulting in hemorrhaging around the brain, in the inner ears, and in the acoustic fats located in the head that are involved in sound transmission.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{186}" paraid="1217454194"><br />
Dr. N&nbsp;Ramaiah, chief scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography,&nbsp;however,&nbsp;felt&nbsp;behavioral patterns could be a possible factor in the mass stranding of 45&nbsp;pilot whales in India this year. &quot;As these&nbsp;pilot whales move in large groups, each pod has a leader. Sometimes they land up on the shore while following their leader&nbsp;that may have lost its way due to disorientation,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{206}" paraid="794908400"><br />
Mass&nbsp;strandings&nbsp;may not even be a true indicator of what&#39;s going on in the ocean. Clare&nbsp;Embling,&nbsp;lecturer of Marine Ecology at Plymouth University in the United Kingdom,&nbsp;said&nbsp;stranding&nbsp;&quot;is always difficult to place in context, because only a small number that die will strand. Many big mammals sink, and where they die in relation to ocean currents, can influence how many strand. Seeing 30 sperm whales strand is upsetting, but it is difficult to know whether it is a fluke climatic event that caused it, or something more alarming.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{226}" paraid="1390480577"><br />
One major factor, however, is plastic.&nbsp;It&nbsp;is found floating in all the world&rsquo;s oceans.&nbsp;Among 10 species of baleen whales, 60 per cent have been found to be tangled in ocean debris, while 20 per cent have ingested plastic or other waste by mistake. The study of 65 different species of toothed whales by&nbsp;environmental&nbsp;group&nbsp;Greenpeace reveals&nbsp;that&nbsp;8 per cent managed to entangle themselves in ocean waste, another 32 per cent ended up ingesting plastic&nbsp;dumped in the ocean.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{e20761c3-5ece-4734-9b3d-a84b8441cdad}{244}" paraid="1987002615"><br />
Kumaran&nbsp;Sathasivam, coordinator of the Marine Mammal Conservation Network of India, said:&nbsp;&quot;Whales and dolphins consume plastic in the ocean thinking it is food. The ocean is already so&nbsp;polluted&nbsp;and it will take a lot of time for all this plastic to deteriorate.&quot;&nbsp;But to reduce all cetacean&nbsp;strandings&nbsp;to one cause is difficult without proper statistics, experts say.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{f8fb269c-e177-4ca3-8947-a18c6761d825}{8}" paraid="557921561"><br />
Independent marine ecologist,&nbsp;Dipani&nbsp;Sutaria, says, &quot;A concerted effort to document and&nbsp;publicise&nbsp;these [stranding] events has begun only since 2013. We now have researchers or interested individuals all along the&nbsp;west coast.&quot;&nbsp;Sutaria points out that&nbsp;11 Baleen whales were found stranded&nbsp;in 2015&nbsp;on the west coast of India --&nbsp;eight in Maharashtra and three in Gujarat.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{f8fb269c-e177-4ca3-8947-a18c6761d825}{17}" paraid="1377072721"><br />
Sutaria believes&nbsp;the number of cases reported is directly proportionate to the response network on the coasts. There are fisher-folk, tourists, forest department staff, independent researchers, and local&nbsp;organisations&nbsp;that pass on information in case a marine mammal washes ashore.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{f8fb269c-e177-4ca3-8947-a18c6761d825}{31}" paraid="931235265"><br />
While this mysterious uptick of beached&nbsp;whales is&nbsp;recent, the phenomenon itself is surprisingly old. Evidence of mass&nbsp;beaching&nbsp;has puzzled scientists as far back as 300 BC. &ldquo;It is not known why they sometimes run aground on the seashore,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Greek philosopher&nbsp;Aristotle. &ldquo;It is asserted that this happens when the fancy takes them and without any apparent reason.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div paraeid="{f8fb269c-e177-4ca3-8947-a18c6761d825}{34}" paraid="1428470953"><br />
&nbsp;</div>


On March 23, Abhishek Jalalabad spent the day practically praying that he did not see a whale in the waters of Palolem beach in South Goa. A day earlier a local branch of the conservation group, World Wild Fund, got in touch with him. It was a distress call. They wanted help rescuing an eight-foot dwarf sperm whale. Jalalabad, a marine scientist, rushed to Palolem beach. By then, tourists and lifeguards had managed to release the whale into the Arabian Sea. But he stayed back on a hunch and his worst fears came true at about midnight. The eight-foot whale returned to the shore in the dark of the night. Roughly 20 minutes after Jalalabad and his colleague, assisted by tourists, sent it back into the water, the whale beached again. This time, it lay still, dead. This was one of the roughly 90 reported cases of whale and dolphin strandings along the Indian shores in the past 16 months. More than 13,000 kilometres away from Goa is California’s Pacifica Beach. Nicole Strasser was heading home from working the night shift at the hospital, but in the parking lot she noticed a nasty stench. Something was afloat on the beach. To her dismay it was a dead whale -- the second she saw in a matter of weeks. When WION spoke to Strasser, she was anxious. Last year she had spotted hundreds of whales in the sea. This year she has only seen dead ones. More and more mass whale and dolphin strandings are being reported the world over. Once beached, they face the risk of injury and death from dehydration. However, January was especially baffling for marine scientists in India. More than a hundred short-finned pilot whales – a species of dolphins – were found stranded along a 15-kilometre stretch on a beach on the East coast of which 45 died. N Vasudevan, a conservationist for the Indian state of Maharashtra that flanks the western coast, told WION, "The numbers are unusually high. Earlier, we rarely saw so many whales being washed ashore. We cannot say what is causing this.” No marine scientist can pinpoint the exact cause behind cetacean stranding. Giuseppe Notabartolo di Sciara is the president of Tethys Research Institute in Milan that is a non-profit organisation supporting marine conservation through science and public awareness,. "The news about whales and dolphins washing up dead in India in increasing numbers is worrisome. In India, it is clear that there isn't a single agent at work, but multiple causes, and each event has its own story,” di Sciara said. "We humans are forgetting that all our activities conducted in unsustainable ways at sea are destroying not only the animal world, but our world as well," di Sciara added. Human disruptions also cost lives with dolphins getting caught-up in fishing lines and dying. A baby dolphin died after it was scooped out of shallow water by a swimmer and passed around at a beach in Argentina by a mob intent on clicking selfies with it. In 2015, scientists made a grim discovery in Patagonia, southern Chile: 337 dead Sei whales. This is the world's biggest mass whale stranding event ever recorded. A year on, investigators still have no explanation. Professor di Sciara speculated that the large number of dead whales in Chile must have a single cause, whereas it was “very likely' that the increase of dead whales in India is due to human activities, like plastic waste disposal in the sea, overfishing and underwater sonar”. In 2004, the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission concluded “there is now compelling evidence that military sonar has a direct impact on beaked whales”. In 2001, the U.S. Navy acknowledged that its active sonar played a role in the stranding deaths of 14 beaked whales, two minke whales, and a dolphin in the Bahamas in 2000. Autopsies of the beaked whales revealed that the animals had suffered acoustic trauma resulting in hemorrhaging around the brain, in the inner ears, and in the acoustic fats located in the head that are involved in sound transmission. Dr. N Ramaiah, chief scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography, however, felt behavioral patterns could be a possible factor in the mass stranding of 45 pilot whales in India this year. "As these pilot whales move in large groups, each pod has a leader. Sometimes they land up on the shore while following their leader that may have lost its way due to disorientation,” he said. Mass strandings may not even be a true indicator of what's going on in the ocean. Clare Embling, lecturer of Marine Ecology at Plymouth University in the United Kingdom, said stranding "is always difficult to place in context, because only a small number that die will strand. Many big mammals sink, and where they die in relation to ocean currents, can influence how many strand. Seeing 30 sperm whales strand is upsetting, but it is difficult to know whether it is a fluke climatic event that caused it, or something more alarming." One major factor, however, is plastic. It is found floating in all the world’s oceans. Among 10 species of baleen whales, 60 per cent have been found to be tangled in ocean debris, while 20 per cent have ingested plastic or other waste by mistake. The study of 65 different species of toothed whales by environmental group Greenpeace reveals that 8 per cent managed to entangle themselves in ocean waste, another 32 per cent ended up ingesting plastic dumped in the ocean. Kumaran Sathasivam, coordinator of the Marine Mammal Conservation Network of India, said: "Whales and dolphins consume plastic in the ocean thinking it is food. The ocean is already so polluted and it will take a lot of time for all this plastic to deteriorate." But to reduce all cetacean strandings to one cause is difficult without proper statistics, experts say. Independent marine ecologist, Dipani Sutaria, says, "A concerted effort to document and publicise these [stranding] events has begun only since 2013. We now have researchers or interested individuals all along the west coast." Sutaria points out that 11 Baleen whales were found stranded in 2015 on the west coast of India -- eight in Maharashtra and three in Gujarat. Sutaria believes the number of cases reported is directly proportionate to the response network on the coasts. There are fisher-folk, tourists, forest department staff, independent researchers, and local organisations that pass on information in case a marine mammal washes ashore. While this mysterious uptick of beached whales is recent, the phenomenon itself is surprisingly old. Evidence of mass beaching has puzzled scientists as far back as 300 BC. “It is not known why they sometimes run aground on the seashore,” said Greek philosopher Aristotle. “It is asserted that this happens when the fancy takes them and without any apparent reason."

Sharp rise in whale, dolphin stranding deaths in India

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