It is reported that at least 45 small short-finned pilot whales, which was part of the load that washed on the coastline in Tiruchendur, Tamil Nadu, Monday evening, perished. On Tuesday morning, over 100 whales were found on the 15 km stretch from Alanthalai to Kallamozhi coastal hamlets. Luckily, 36 were saved by fishermen.

Rajan, a fisherman in Manapad reported that the whales begun arriving ashore in groups at approximately 5 p.m., which he found to be very strange. He had witnessed the same occurrence in 1973 when he was just a boy, however, not as many as they did this time round.

Ditto Mascarenhas of Kulasekarapattinam stated that if local fishermen hadn’t kept a vigil, several other whales would have perished that day. The fishermen stayed awake the entire night to ensure the whales remained in the sea water.

M Ravikumar, Tuticorin district director examined the coast, trying to find a reason why a great number of whales reached ashore. Also, a team from the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Par in Ramanathapural dashed to the area.

What is the reason the whales washing ashore?

K Venkataraman, the former director of Zoological Survey of India reported the cetaceans such as porpoises, dolphins and whales are social marine mammals that live in groups. If it so happens the leader of the group is disrupted due to alterations in underwater, they immediately get bewildered and begin drifting from their usual path and lead towards the shoreline, resulting in their demise.

Some of the underwater changes may result from:

1.      Geo-magnetic deviations

2.      Minimal earthquakes

3.      Tidal currents

4.      Sonic waves

On that particular day, Monday early morning, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale, and another of a magnitude of 6.9 were experienced in the Philippines and Indonesia. These could have triggered the whales’ change of course.

The year 1985 was the first time ever to have been recorded a huge stranding of this whale species in India, which took place in Salt Lake in Lolakta. The greatest number of whale stranding on Indian coastline occurred in the year 1973, in which 14 whales were stranded. This was reported by Venkataraman.

Every year worldwide, over 2,000 whales get stranded, with 1,500 whales being stranded along the Indian coastline from 1800 to 2015. Up-to-date, there has been no study on this issue in the country, a sad fact lamented by researchers; reason being not many funding agencies is willing to finance the research.

Research on cetaceans’ population dynamics, habitat degradation and their breeding ecology amongst other issues needs to be observed by the government. Research would help greatly in understanding the whales’ behavior, and aid in setting up measures that will control the loss of whale life die to stranding. Such measures would aid in safeguarding these endangered marine life. If statistics proceed as they are without any action being taken or measures put in place, we may not have any whales to protect in future.