Are SOLAR STORMS causing whales and dolphins to swim aground in their hundreds?

Severe solar storms could be causing healthy marine animals to lose their way, leaving them stranded on land by the hundreds. Scientists have launched an investigation on the mysterious phenomenon that has caused whales, dolphins, and porpoises to get stuck along coastal areas

Scientists have launched an investigation into the mysterious phenomenon because of whales, dolphins and porpoises find themselves stranded along coastal areas in the world.

While the anthropogenic influences, as the use of sonar-type equipment, could play a role to intervene in their internal compasses, researchers say the real driving force is probably more extreme.

Severe solar storms could be causing healthy marine animals to lose their way, leaving them stranded on land by the hundreds. Scientists have launched an investigation on the mysterious phenomenon that has caused whales, dolphins, and porpoises to get stuck along coastal areas

Stranding events can affect as little as three or several hundreds of individuals both. And, they are more likely to occur in New Zealand, Australia and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

 "These places share some key features, such as geography, gently sloping beaches and fine sediments, we think that all play some role in these events," said collaborator project Katie Moore, the global 

Animal Rescue Program Director of IFAW. Researchers have long suspected the solar activity can contribute to this weird phenomenon, but this is the first time, it is studied in depth.

 Many other explanations have been proposed, with some suggesting the use of pollsters multibeam and other instruments used to map the ocean floor or locate potential fishing sites are playing games with their internal compasses. 

"However, these anthropogenic influences do not explain the majority of strandings," said NASA heliophysicist Antti Pulkkinen. 

Stranding events can affect as little as three or several hundreds of individuals both. And, they are more likely to occur in New Zealand, Australia and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

 "These places share some key features, such as geography, gently sloping beaches and fine sediments, we think that all play some role in these events," said collaborator project Katie Moore, the global 

Animal Rescue Program Director of IFAW. Researchers have long suspected the solar activity can contribute to this weird phenomenon, but this is the first time, it is studied in depth. 

Many other explanations have been proposed, with some suggesting the use of pollsters multibeam and other instruments used to map the ocean floor or locate potential fishing sites are playing games with their internal compasses. 

"However, these anthropogenic influences do not explain the majority of strandings," said NASA heliophysicist Antti Pulkkinen.

 Stranding events can effect as little as three or as many as several hundred animals at once. And, they’re more likely to happen in New Zealand, Australia, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A beached humpback whale calf is pictured in Alaska 

Theories as to the cause include magnetic anomalies and meteorological events, such as extreme tides during a new moon and coastal storms, which are thought to disorient the animals.

‘It has been speculated that due to the possible magnetic-field sensing used by these animals to navigate, magnetic anomalies could be at least partially responsible.’

During a solar storm, the sun ejects giant bubbles of charged particles.

This is known to interfere with Earth-orbiting satellites and power grids, as the particles slam into the magnetosphere.

And, according to the researchers, it can affect pets as well.
"The data type that Antti has accumulatd, along with many strandings at our disposal data, will allow us to undertake the first rigorous analysis to test the possible links between strandings of cetaceans and space weather phenomena," said Desray Reeb, a marine biologist at the headquarters of BOEM in Sterling, Virginia.

Now researchers carried out a massive operation of exploration of data, thanks to the financing of the funds of Innovation of Science BOEM and NASA.

"We believe that the documents on the order of hundreds of cetacean mass strandings will be available for study, which makes our statistically significant analysis," Pulkkinen said.

"We expect that we will be able to reliably test the hypothesis.

"So far, there has been very little research quantitative just a lot of speculation." What we will do is throw cold, hard data on this.

"It's a mystery for a long time and it is important that figure us out what's going on."
The study of performance through September and could provide a new view on the mysterious phenomenon.

"The results of this study will be informative to researchers, organizers of network beaching, resource agencies and regulators," said Reeb.

"If we understand the relationship between the two, we may be ableto use observations of solar storms as an early warning for potentialstrandings to happen," said Moore.

"This would allow stranding of stakeholders in global hotspots, and really all over the world, to be better prepared to respond, thus having the ability to add more animals."