A mass whale stranding in Iceland

2025, June 21. Iceland, Akureyri, beach in Ólafsfjörður. A mass stranding of 60 pilot whales. Rescue crews from Siglufjörður, Akureyri, Dalvík, and Ólafsfjörður are working alongside police and fire services to assist the whales. There are still 15 cetaceans ashore. Updates to come. 20250622: A report from rescuers that between 60 to 70 whales have been refloated. Even though in deeper water, it is unclear whether they will remain this way, and the possibility of individuals restranding is high. 

Image: Björn Andri Sigfússon  

Killer Whale stranded in Iceland

2025, June 10. Iceland, Reykjavík, Korpúlfsstaðir, Grafarvogur neighbourhood, Gorvík bay. An orca has stranded near the Korpa golf course in Reykjavík. Rescue workers are attempting to refloat the animal.

Update: 12062025, the Orca has been successfully refloated.

Update: 13062025, the Orca restranded and was unfortunately euthanised. 

2025, June 6. USA, Alaska, Kodiak Island, Surfer’s Beach. A sub adult male gray whale, about 30 feet long corpse washed up near the southern end of Kodiak’s road system. Death due to Orca mortality. It's the fourth dead whale reported around the archipelago this year and the seventh found around Alaska. 

Mass Whale stranding in Western Australia

2025, April 27. Western Australia. Meteors. Detected on camera within hour of each other. The event parameters at Albany were. LLB: (-35.48, 118.29). LLE: (-34.62, 117.41). HB: 120.5 km, HE: 102.3 km. Duration: 1.92 sec. Vel: 67.16 km/s. Travelling NW for 124 km.  

2025, April 30. Western Australia. Meteor. Detected on camera at a long distance.

2025, May 1. Queensland, K'gari (Frazer Island). Juvenile Brydes Whale stranded. Outcome unknown.

2025, May 4. Philippines, Brgy. Minabel, Camiguin Norte. A large dead whale, species not known.

2025, May 4. Iceland. Two dolphins in an advanced state of decomposition.

2025, May 4. India, Mumbai, Juhu beach. A rare occurrence of a dead pink dolphin.

2025, May 4. Wales, Pwll Llanddu. Dead common dolphin.  

2025, May 5. Bangladesh, The Rupnarayan River, village of Mankur in Bagnan 1 Block at the end of Howrah district. An adult Gangetic dolphin was recovered from the riverbank.  

2025, May 5. New South Wales, Manly. Risso’s Dolphin calf. the calf had sustained minor predation wounds and was euthanised.

2025, May 5. South Australia, Henley Beach. Dead Great White Shark (Total of four dead individuals). The incident follows the discovery of dead sharks at Ardrossan, Aldinga and Port Willunga in recent weeks. Experts are concerned it could be connected to the algae bloom.

2025, May 5. Western Australia, House Beach, 12km east of Bremer Bay. A mass stranding of seven false killer whales. Four died initially with three refloated. One restranded and euthanised. These cetaceans could be individuals separated from the large pod stranding of FKW in Tasmania on February 19. 

Bangladesh: Gangetic Dolphin

Western Australia: Mass Stranding and meteor event locations.

Cetacean strandings since April 17

 2025, April 17. USA, California, San Diego, Nahant Court in Mission Beach. A dead dolphin.

2025, April 17? UK, Anglesey, beach near Rhosneigr (Porth Tyn Tywyn). Dead bottlenose dolphin.

2025, April 18. USA, Massachusetts, Duxbury. A Atlantic White-Sided dolphin stranded and died.

2025, April 19. USA, Washington, near Cape Disappointment, Ilwaco, Long Beach, about four miles north of Seaview. A female dead gray whale. The whale was the fifth reported dead in Washington so far this year. Note: Two dead whales washed up along the Oregon coast last spring, and three others washed up in the span of a week in January 2023. Two of those five were also gray whales; the other three were a fin whale, a humpback whale and a sperm whale.

2025, April 17. Cambodia, Kampot province, Trery Koh commune. A pink dolphin ws found dead off shore. It weighed about 50kg and was 1.98 meters long.

2025, April 20. UK, Devon, Paignton beach then Torquay Harbour. Dead dolphin restranded after attempted refloat and died.

2025, April 21. Philippines, Lianga. Dead beaked whale.

2025, April 20. USA, California, San Francisco Bay off of Alameda. A dead whale found floating near shore.

2025, April 21. Iceland, north east, Njarðvík by Borgarfjörður eystri. Sowerbys Beaked Whale found washed ashore dead.

2025, April 21. USA, California, Torrey Pines State Beach, north of San Diego. A total of 12 dolphins in three weeks. The stranding team from NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center recovered 16 dead dolphins from San Diego beaches on Sunday, April 20. These deaths add to the likely toll of a domoic acid outbreak produced by a harmful algae bloom off Southern California. Note: As of 27th April deaths continue.

2025, April 21. Philippines, Lianga Bay, Surigao del Sur, coast of Brgy. A stranded cetacean was identified as a Longman’s beaked whale.

2025, April 21. Mexico, San Antonio del Mar. Dead beaked whale.

2025, April 21. UK, Wales, Traeth Crigyll, the main beach at Rhosneigr. A dead bottlenose dolphin.

2025, April 22. Belize. Location is between Stank Bank and Drowned Cayes Area, or to a greater extent between Belize City and Turneffe Atoll. A mass whale stranding of 30 false killer whales. They self escaped to deeper water.

2025, April 23. US, California, Ventura. Dead Humpback.

2025, April 23. USA, North Carolina, Emerald Isle. A pygmy sperm whale calf died after being stranded.

2025, April 25 (reported). Saudi Arabia, Red Sea coast. Two dolphins found dead this year so far.

2025, April 25. Bangladesh, Rajshahi at Talaimari Fultala Ghat on the banks of Padma River. A Irrawaddy dolphin washed ashore dead.

2025, April 26. Mexico, Gulf of California, Las Conchas, south of Puerto Peñasco. Dead whale in advanced state of decomposition. A dolphin and two turtles washed ashore two weeks ago in the same area.

2025, April 26. USA, Maryland, Ocean City’s back bay. A dead and decomposing whale has become stranded on a sandbar in. The cetacean became stuck in just a few inches of water in the area off Harbour Island and Purnell Island.

Note: there has been whale and dolphin deaths reported in Pacific coast Guatemala.

The 2019 Multiple Mass Dolphin Strandings in Iceland

2019, May 26. North Atlantic Ocean. Airburst. 56.6N, 25.3W. Time: 10:07. e = 0.14. 822 km from S.W Iceland. Altitude: 24.4 km. Velocity 17.5 km/s. 900km south of evets below.

2019, July 18. Iceland, Snaefellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland. 50 long-finned pilot whales on the shore. Concentrated in one spot and are thought to have swum ashore at the same time. Were half buried in sand, some might have been totaly buried so numbers could have been much higher.

2019, August 3, Iceland, Southwest Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula, Beach at Garður. 3 weeks after first one. 50 to 70 Black Dolphins. 30 returned to sea.

(Supplied: David Schwarzhans via AP)  

2019 Airburst and Stranding

Stranding, hunting and wind farms

2024, June 14. Bangladesh, Kuakata Beach. A 10-foot long bottlenose dolphin was found washed up in Patuakhali. Members of the Dolphin Conservation Committee and forest department are investigating.

2024, June 14. Iceland. 128 Fin whales approved for slaughter in Iceland. This quota will never be filled, nowhere near it if any at all. The decline in consumption of whale products worldwide is now almost nil.

2024, June 14. Australia, Illawarra. Wind farm gets the green light; however, it is pushed offshore. An extra 10 km further out means increased fuel used by support teams to build and maintain assets. This is not good for the environment. There is no impact on whales by windfarms.