Cetacean Strandings

2025, May 7. Ireland, Galway. A minke whale, which is believed to be only a few months old, was refloated. Highly likely that it will die.  

2025, May 8. Canada, British Columbia, Long Beach, in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, near Tofino. Juvenile Gray whale.

2025, May 8. Aruba, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the southern Caribbean Sea 29 kilometres north of the Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná and 80 kilometres northwest of Curaçao. Gervais' beaked whale located dead on beach.

Global cetacean stranding last week

Note: I try my best to locate most strandings but sadly it is only a small fraction of the real number. 

2025, February 17. UK, Gwynedd, Porth Neigwl (Hell’s Mouth) on the Llŷn Peninsula. Dead dolphin in advanced state of decomposition.

2025, February 17. UK, Gwynedd, Porth Neigwl (Hell’s Mouth) on the Llŷn Peninsula. Dead adult whale possibly a minke or fin. In advanced state of decomposition.

2025, February 18. Venezuela Isla de Margarita, El Tirano. Two pygmy killer whales stranded. Both transported to Waterland Mundo Marino for rehabilitation. Both have liver issues, dehydration and parasitism.

2025, February 18. Ireland, Kinsale, Dock beach. Dead dolphin.

2025, February 19. UK. A Rissos dolphin calf was euthanised after being found on beach alive and alone.

2025, February 19. UK, Isle of Wight, Culiver Down Beach. Dead dolphin.

2025, February 20. Germany, Lower Saxony, Wadden Sea island of Minsener Oog, south-east of the island of Wangerooge. A humpback washed ashore dead. The remote island, which lies west of the mouth of the Jade and east of the island of Wangerooge, is around four kilometers from the mainland. At the beginning of 2016, 30 young sperm whales were stranded and died in the North Sea, two of them on Wangeroog beach.

2025, February 22. Greece, Kriti (Crete), Chania, Pachia Ammos. The discovery of three dead dolphins washed up on the shores.

Image: Citynewstv/dpa  

The 2019 dolphin die-off in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2019, more than 260 dolphins stranded themselves across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle from the beginning of February to June. This was approximately three-times higher than the historical average. In Mississippi alone, 126 dolphins died on the coastline. There was a line of meteor airbursts across the Caribbean during this period. It started on February 1 with a fireball that produced an airburst with equivalent energy to 1,400,000 kg/TNT. It was travelling south to north over Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico. On April 14 another airburst struck off the coast of Haiti with an energy of 100,000 kg/TNT. Then a third happened off the coast of Mississippi/Louisiana on May 4 with an energy equal to 79,000 kg/TNT. To cap it off on June 22, to bookend these incidents, a further massive airburst occurred in the Caribbean between Venezuela and Puerto Rico that had the energy of 6,000,000 kg of TNT. The four airbursts were almost in a straight line across the Gulf of Mexico. The cetacean strandings were blamed on rain.

Massive Caribbean Fireball

2024, July 13. Caribbean Sea, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. Large Meteor. Time: around 23:52 UT. Local Time: 19:49. Concurrent and delayed sound heard. Witnessed at locations 200km apart. Lasted 20 seconds. Until further information is gathered on the energy of this event a Marine Animal Disturbance alert should be noted for Venezuela, Columbia and associated Caribbean Islands. The reason is that this meteoroid had electrophonic properties. 

American Meteor Society (amsmeteors.org)

Also: 2024, July 13. Netherlands, Gelderland, Niedersachsen, Noord-Brabant, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Utrecht, Vlaams Gewest and Zuid-Holland. Fireball. Time: around 22:06 UT. Heading into North Sea.

Also: 2024, July 12. USA, Rhode Island, South Shore. A mature female Humpback named “Lollipop” was found dead. On June 1 she was last seen in good apparent health. She was discovered 10 miles offshore.

Dead Herring Whale in Gulf of Barcelona.

Venezuela, Gulf of Barcelona, Anzoategui. A dead Herring whale was reported dead on February 18. The map below shows bolides detected by NASA on the 17 and 22 of January. The yellow cross is approximately where a Herring Whale was located floating on the surface. It was in an advanced case of decomposition.  

NASA Bolide Network

They found a dead whale in the Gulf of Barcelona in Anzoategui (photo) – Play Crazy Game