Talk:Beached whale

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[edit] Suicide?

Whales are intelligent. There is every reason to believe at least some of them are deliberatly commiting suicide. Some are autopsied and found to have some painful condition. Others appear to have been healthy before they beached themselves. Some beach themselves as a group, and do it again if humans "save" them. Is this a Jim Jones kind of thing? Is this a religious suicide - I mean culture/idea based - maybe life after death ideas? Do wales, some of them , think after death they return as humans? Some smarter humans think they reincarnate as various animals. If I could find ANYTHING scientific on this, I wouldn't be putting this on the DISCUSSION page. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.250.33.89 (talk • contribs) 29 Dec 2004.

The lack of any scientific references suggests that this idea is original research. A Google search doesn't reveal any serious claims that whales consciously commit suicide. I have therefore removed from the article this paragraph:

It is also controversially theorized that beachings could be suicide attempts by whales, perhaps to end some suffering. Those theories are based on the assumption that whales are highly intelligent animals capable of planning their own deaths.^{[citation needed]}

(Note also that the Citation needed tag added on 6 March 2006 hadn't attracted the addition of any references.) -- JimR 02:31, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hypoxia?

Would Hypoxia be a cause for whale beachings? I heard recently of beachings in South Africa, and I remembered hearing about recent troubles with environmental hypoxia there; so I thought perhaps the majority of whale beachings occurs in areas of hypoxia. However, I've been unable to find a map of either whale beachings around the globe or areas of significant hypoxia. I've also heard that the majortiy of beaching species are beaked, which excludes (for the most part) whales with baleens; that would make sense in the event of hypoxia, simply because the plankton they eat would become more abundant.

Also, less oxygen would mean that the whales might be suffocating and become desperate for an oxygen source; since the plankton has increased in oxygen intake, it still makes sense to exclude non-beaked whales because they would still be supplied with the necessary oxygen content.

I don't know, however, and I wouldn't mind having questions answered before I decide to add hypoxia as a possible cause for beaching in the article.

~Specusci

[edit] Sonar?

How common were whale-strandings before the advent of sonar? Is this primarily a 20th century phenomenon, or much older? Bastie 22:43, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

They certainly happened. Even Aristotle and the ancient Romans discussed them; I've added some info on natural causes. As to whether there are more now, that's a different (controversial?) question! Eug 14:36, 2 December 2006 (UTC)