Loss for wildlife under the sea

In a rare and tragic case of mass stranding, 40 Short Finned Pilot whales have been found dead near Elizabeth Bay on the West Coast of North Andaman islands by local fishermen. Whales are highly intelligent creatures and they know their way about under the sea.  This is why experts have reported this incident to be rare. Stranding happens when animals which live deep in the sea and which follow the flow of water currents to cover extraordinary lengths under the water, get disoriented and lose their way and wash up on a coast. While straying itself is not a rare thing, it is not often that so many members of a species wash up together and that too in this part of the world. The fact that the animals  were whales made it altogether difficult for the local people and others to help them because each of these mammals weighs around 2 tonnes. It is impossible to manually help them back into the waters when they have strayed because they are so heavy. Indeed, as in this case, some whales were alive when they had washed ashore but little could be done to save them. Unless the authorities are able to provide help in such cases, the mass straying of such large mammals lead to death and in this case too, there was no exception.

Since whales do not often get stranded off the coast of the North Andamans, rescue preparedness and operations are at the minimum. It is likely that a smaller species could even have been saved but not whales, as the experts have pointed out. Perhaps this case is an exception and such a tragedy on such a large scale will not happen again on the islands, which are known for their exceptional natural beauty and flora and fauna. It is not easy to understand why whales get stranded. It may be that cutting  up some of the carcasses will determine the cause of straying which can range from any number of causes such as lapses of movement or an anomaly in earth’s electromagnetic field or an earthquake or storm. Given that it’s a whole group and not just a few, suggests a change in conditions, which the experts have not been able to pinpoint. It is only natural if a watch is kept on the beaches across the island for a few days so that an incident of this scale can be avoided. Hopefully, it will not happen again.

Whether they are sick or not or endangered or not, the death of 40 whales in this way is a big loss indeed and India’s wildlife, and sea experts and government should be doubly cautious to prevent, as far as possible, any such incident in the future.