NZ Whales

Great pity to hear about the beached Whales in Zealand Newydd
And Rhod if your thinking of getting down there with your species hunt card your to late we've already seen it on the box

Had you and Stevo been telling them your jokes and driven them to suicide?

headwyn wrote:

Had you and Stevo been telling them your jokes and driven them to suicide?

It's all dave's fault kev

It's generally considered that fish,birds etc,use magnetic north for direction finding.
The voltage is minimal to send the natural compass off (below 3v)
The latest thing for a shark deterent is a low voltage sender.On tests the sharks are
completely disorientated,they lose direction,and give up their quarry.
I have thought for a while now,that whales probably lose direction because of a natural fluctuation in magnetic north.
One whale losing direction could be it's own physical breakdown perhaps.
But that can't be the same for a number of whales all losing natural direction.
I doubt there is a cure,only an explanation.

Hey up Rhod,I think you will need a bigger boat,(and camera)

There are many theories as to why the pilot whales strand on Farewell Spit, from their echo location not working in shallow water, to the theory that they are following an ancestral route from before the sand spit formed. As they seem to be mainly on the shallow sheltered side the first theory is more likely.
Shortly after we arrived in NZ about 1974 we had 70 sperm whales strand on our local west coast surf beach, I heard about it while at work, so as soon as I got home we jumped in the car and drove the 12 miles up the beach just after low tide. What an amazing sight, these huge whales washed up over 2 miles of beach, even if the whale rescue had been around then, there was no hope of saving any of these on that beach. It was impractical to do anything with them, so they were just left to rot. The Maori have the legal right to the bones and teeth, though someone had got in early with a chainsaw on one of them.
As the tide was coming in we just had a quick look, took a few photos, and then headed back before the hard sand disapeared, though there were still 2 wheel drives coming up passing us. I never heard if any got stuck, though there are a couple of cars a year lost there. About 10 years ago they put a gate across the easy access to the beach, too much conflict with vehicles trying to get through the crowds on the beach in the summer, so access is now a 4 wheel drive only sand track 2 miles up the beach. The fishing club has retained access to the natural rock ramp onto the sand for launching boats from the beach.
The last 2 winters the sand has scoured out making vehicle and boat access impossible, and so far this summer the sand has not washed back in.
If I find the photos sometime I will post them.

Nice bit of info there Rhod,thanks.
I have a bit of a theory on the magnetism angle.
Scientists reckon that because of the molten metals underneath the earths surface
being on the move,eventually north and south will eventually reverse.
So what is not to say that with the movement of the metals,the magnetism is not fluctuating
slightly at present.
That would account for the whales natural compass going off.
Personally,I can't see their sonar having much to do with shallow water,they are more likely to
have lost direction and are following magnetic north etc.
Tests on sharks show the sharks go into panic when a minute current is introduced near them,
simply because it interferes with their natural compass.I think their whole existence is
controlled by the poles.
Haha,just a theory,but time will tell.
Have a nice day

Thanks for that, I know that over geological time that the poles have reversed, and that magnetic north varies considerably over time, but strandings happen in many different situations, and if the magnetic field had been an influence this would have been picked up by science as just about everything is monitored these days.