Why Healthy Whales Are Suddenly Ending Up on Beaches

Whale strandings are heartbreaking, but what happens when the whales are not sick? In this episode of How to Protect the Ocean, we look at a recent mass pilot whale stranding in Scotland, where many of the animals appeared to be healthy before they ended up on shore.

Pilot whales are highly social animals, which means one wrong turn can become a disaster for the entire pod. As prey shifts closer to shallow coastal waters, whales may follow their food into places where navigation becomes harder and the risk of stranding increases.

Ocean change is the bigger story. These strandings may not just be random events. They may be signals that prey, currents, temperatures, and ecosystems are shifting in real time.