Why Healthy Whales Are Suddenly Ending Up on Beaches

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The whales we're gonna talk
about today, they weren't sick.

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They were just in the wrong
place at the wrong time.

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This is the How to Protect the Ocean
podcast, and if you are interested in

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knowing more about the ocean, need a
resource to find out more about the

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ocean, what's happening, the good, the
bad, maybe the ugly at some point, I

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want you to hit that follow button right
now because this is the podcast for you.

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You're gonna learn everything
five days a week on this podcast.

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Normally, we do a solo show Monday through
Thursday, and then we'll do an interview.

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This week, we're gonna be doing
five randomized podcasts, solo

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podcasts, Monday to Friday.

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Normally, there's a theme.

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Today we're just gonna randomize, gonna
go back to the old school How to Protect

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the Ocean podcast, and I can't wait
to get into it 'cause we're gonna talk

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about these whales, these pilot whales.

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Why are healthy whales ending
up stranded on beaches?

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Every time you see a stranding
or news of a stranding... I've

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never seen a stranding live.

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I don't know if I can
handle it emotionally.

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You have people who react to them.

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You have whale stranding networks.

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There's some in the UK.

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There's some in North America.

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There are some all over the world,
and these are a lot of times

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volunteers that will patrol or go out.

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They're trained to specifically handle
beached whales situations or any kind

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of beaching of any type of animal, and
they go out, and they make sure the right

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authorities know what to do, or they
can come out to these whale strandings.

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But it's really difficult to go out there.

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You have these whales that a lot
of the times they don't make it.

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They come onto the beach.

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We don't really know why
they're coming onto the beach.

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A lot of times, if it's like pilot
whales, they tend to follow the leader.

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And if the leader's sick or it
ends up beaching itself, the entire

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pod will beach itself as well.

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So it's a difficult situation to look at.

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In this latest or recent study that was
reported by phys.org, which is a great

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site as well, looked at a major pilot
whale stranding in Scotland, where

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more than 50 whales were stranded.

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That is insane amount.

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Now, like I said, pilot whales,
they come in large pods.

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We don't know why they really beach
themselves, but they're known to beach.

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They beach in New Zealand, up in the UK.

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This is not necessarily a rare occasion.

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It's just one that we've seen a lot.

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And the ones that were stranded,
these 50, many of them were in good

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health before it actually happened.

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That's what makes this one different.

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The detail that really changes this story
is that most of the animals were healthy.

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They weren't sick, they weren't
disoriented, they didn't

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have any problems with them.

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All the animals that stranded and ended
up dying, they were actually healthy.

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This wasn't a disease, and
it wasn't an obvious injury.

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Instead, researchers found
something else, and this is

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where it really comes into play.

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Like the mysteries of the
ocean, everything that comes on.

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These whales had been feeding in areas
that were closer to the continental shelf,

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right near shallow coastal zones, which
these pilot whales aren't really there.

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Now, these places are productive,
but they can be dangerous because

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of the shallowness of the area.

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Whales follow food.

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That's how the ocean works.

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But when food shifts, so do whales, right?

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That happens with a lot of these animals.

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They gotta go where their food is.

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And now, these days, with everything
going on in the world, you have climate

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change that is shifting where these
fish are going, where whales are going to

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follow the fish, where upwellings happen.

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And if you don't know what an upwelling
is, essentially It's a place like, on

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the ocean where cold, nutrient-rich
waters come from deep in the ocean,

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they come up to the surface, and it
brings fish around 'cause you get a

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lot of plankton in those upwellings.

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The fish will come to
feed on the plankton.

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The larger fish and marine mammals and sea
turtles and everything will come in and

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feed on everything else that's coming in.

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Seabirds will dive in, and it's
actually quite a productive area.

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You have a lot of these different areas
around the ocean that are being shifted

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around because currents are shifting,
'cause wind patterns are shifting,

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because the climate is changing,
and that's what we have to go with.

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And so it becomes really difficult
to track where these new areas are.

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Like, let's go back to marine
mammals that were being killed, like

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the North Atlantic right whale on
the East Coast of North America.

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They were normally in the US.

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They would go from Jacksonville,
Florida, in the winter all

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the way up to, say, like, New
England and Maine in the summers.

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Then, all of a sudden, they
started to go into the Gulf of

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St. Lawrence and up in Canada.

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Why are they up there?

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It's warmer waters.

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They can extend their range because it's
warmer waters, and they ended up being

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there, and 17 of them that summer that
we found them there ended up dying

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because the ships weren't ready for them.

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The ships ran into them.

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They got entangled from fishing
gear, and they ended up dying.

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A lot of the shifts had to change.

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Not only are we seeing a shift in
ecology, but we have to get into a

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shift of how we conduct ourselves
in the ocean during that time.

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So that's essentially
what's been happening.

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The shifts of animals coming into
closer to shore can bring these

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marine mammals that follow the
prey into risky environments,

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which is essentially shallow water.

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That's probably their biggest crux.

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As my daughter would say, the biggest op.

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I know.

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I'm older.

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I, I don't... I- it doesn't work.

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It doesn't feel good coming off my lips.

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But whatever.

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Yeah, yeah, I said it.

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I said it there.

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I said I'm not editing
that out regardless.

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But, you know, shallow waters
have complex coastlines.

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Places where navigation can become harder.

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It's difficult for pilot whales to go in.

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You add one more layer that
pilot whales are highly social.

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If one individual gets into trouble,
like I mentioned earlier, the

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entire group will actually follow.

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And when you have an entire group that's
following one animal or a couple of

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animals that are going through, this
social behavior amplifies the risk of

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what is gonna happen to these animals.

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They're in coastal waters.

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They're close to coastal waters,
where navigation can be difficult.

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They navigate using echolocation.

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That shallow water compared to deep water,
the sound reverberations that they use

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to look for the way they're going, their
navigation, can really throw them off and

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disorientate them in these shallow areas.

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So as they're going through the
shallow areas, they get disoriented,

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they lose their navigation, they
end up getting beached, and then

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because they're so social, a lot of
the other animals will just follow

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them even though they're healthy.

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So one mistake becomes a mass stranding,
and this is the key insight here.

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Strandings are not just random.

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They are signals telling us
that the ocean is changing.

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And so when we have a changing ocean,
we have a lot of stuff going on.

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And to keep updated on finding out
what's going on in this changing ocean,

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I want you to hit that follow button
right now on this podcast so you make

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sure you don't miss any of the episodes
where we talk about the different

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things that are changing in the ocean.

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Yesterday, we talked about sea cucumbers
decreasing and how because of fisheries,

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because how important that is and how
important they are to the ecosystem.

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Now, we're talking about pilot whale
stranding and how healthy ones will

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strand because they are very curious.

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They're social animals.

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They wanna stay with their
pods, and they will go until

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they are very much in trouble.

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So hit that follow button so you
make sure you know everything that's

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going on because we're gonna get
down into what needs to happen next.

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If we don't wanna see this, 'cause we're
gonna see more of this, we're likely

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gonna see more of these pilot whales
stranding, not because the whales are

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failing, because the ocean is shifting.

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Prey is moving.

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Conditions are changing, and
species are adapting in real time.

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They're adapting 'cause they need to.

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A lot of the times, people will look at
climate change and look at everything

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that's happening, and they'll tell me,
"Andrew, like, why do we need to change?

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I love the hot weather.

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It's great when we get a shorter
winter and a hotter summer or a

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longer spring, summer, fall because
those are the seasons I like.

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I don't wanna be in Canada in the
snow for long." As winter ends here

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in Canada, here in Ontario, people
are like, "When's spring coming?

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When's spring coming?" So much
so that we look to a groundhog

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to tell us when spring is coming.

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That's how much we don't like
it by the end of the winter.

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We love winter for a little bit, but
after a few weeks of really cold, people

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are like, "When's summer coming?" And so,
people are not ready to change to that.

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And a lot of times they
don't see the change.

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They don't see that they need to change
because they haven't been affected

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too much yet or personally yet.

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Although many people around
the world are being impacted.

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Now, that has been a buildup, and
we're starting to see what is happening.

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But the animals that are in the ocean have
to change because they need their food.

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And when their food moves,
they need to move too.

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So the question now is whether
we can track those shifts, like

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these ocean shifts, fast enough
to understand and respond.

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Like, how can we do this?

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So there's modeling and then monitoring
of these fisheries and where they're gonna

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go, doing stock assessments, why they're
shifting, what are the major components?

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Is it temperature?

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Is it because their prey is shifting
'cause currents are shifting?

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And what's gonna happen when these
marine mammals come close to the

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shore or close to coastal areas?

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Again, are we gonna go out there
and try and divert them outwards?

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What happens to their food?

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Are they gonna be emaciated?

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Who knows what's gonna
happen in the future?

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But this is where the call to action
is, where we need more funding of

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just fundamental science, fundamental
ocean research, that will actually

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have applications to the real world
problems that we see each and every day.

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So that is teaming up with
coastal communities, like, so

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the science community teaming up
with coastal communities and be

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like, "What are you looking for?

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What are you seeing out there along
your coastline that you have seen for

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generations?" Whether it's indigenous
communities or non-indigenous, anybody

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who has been there for a long time can
tell you what's been happening to the

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fisheries, what's been happening to
the coastline, what's been happening

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to sea level rise, temperature, shifts
in wind, shift in currents, shifts in

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prey, anything, they are able to tell it.

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And allow the scientists to come
in and collaborate with those local

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communities to be able to find out
solutions on how they can actually, just

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sit there and be like, "Hey, you know
what? We can actually adapt to this."

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These whales didn't make a mistake.

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They followed the ocean as it changed.

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We're gonna see that a lot more.

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And that is something that is scary
to see because these are healthy

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whales and we're gonna see more of
these whales do this, but their prey

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is shifting closer to the coastline.

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This may not be a problem if the prey
shifted like further away from the

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coastline, but they're coming in.

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And so now it's a problem, and now we need
to have better monitoring in the future.

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I would love to hear what you
think, 'cause this podcast, this

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whole thing, is the start of a
conversation, not just this episode.

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But this is why I started
this podcast 11 years ago.

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I wanna hear from you.

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I wanna have that conversation.

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Reach out to me on my socials.

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You can see it in the description.

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You can subscribe to my newsletter,
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I send out every Monday to Friday.

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And of course, you can always hit me
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Leave a voicemail or you
can type in your feedback.

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I would love to hear from you.

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If you listen to this podcast more than
once a day or even this is your first

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time, I'd love to hear your thoughts,
your comments, anything, criticisms even.

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I would love to hear from you.

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I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on this episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.