The Great Quiet – 1959 to 1963

Sonic booms, large meteors, and fireballs—alongside corresponding mass cetacean strandings—had been documented regularly since modern Australian and New Zealand observation records began. Following an atmospheric entry event off the coast of New Zealand in March 1959, a significant multi-year hiatus occurred. For over four years, no major bolide events were recorded across the region. Concurrently, historical archives record no mass whale strandings in Australia or New Zealand during this interval.

After 1,585 days, this period ended on July 24, 1963, when a major fireball detonated over the Great Australian Bight. The acoustic shockwave was recorded across a vast distance, producing a detonation loud enough to be heard in Port Lincoln, over 100 km away, where observers likened the sudden acoustic impact to an exploding stove.

Simultaneously, observers at Eucla, Western Australia—over 700 km to the west—reported a luminous object larger than the sun descending toward the ocean, with local fishermen reporting an offshore marine impact. Two weeks later, a mass stranding of 59 False Killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) was discovered approximately 9 km east of Eucla. The 1,585-day quiet period had officially concluded.

Pod of dolphin's re-strand in Western Australia

2026, July 21. Western Australia, Princess Royal Harbour, Albany Waterfront Marina, Anzac Peace Park. A mass stranding of approximately 12 pantropical spotted dolphins. The pod stranded at Albany Waterfront Marina on Tuesday. Over the next 24 hours, 11 died. Initial Stranding (Tuesday). One dolphin died and was removed. The remaining 11 were refloated by members of the public and returned to deeper water. Second Stranding (Wednesday morning): 10 dolphins re-stranded overnight. Seven died on the beach. The remaining three were humanely euthanised following veterinary advice.

Update 20260723: I checked meteor data over multiple sites and haven't found anything other than normal background incidents. 

Western Australia mass dolphin stranding

2026, July 21. Western Australia, Princess Royal Harbour, Albany Waterfront Marina, Anzac Peace Park. A mass stranding of approximately a dozen dolphins occurred in shallow mud flats. All but one were refloated after a response involving public intervention. 

Will update later if significant information becomes available when I check meteor detection sites. It's too early to suggest a reason why; it could be bird flu, a simple navigation error or something else

There was an unrelated large meteor event in northwestern Australia on the 17th.

2026, July 17. Western Australia, Pilbara region, Gibson Desert, North Karlamilyi National Park/Telfer Township. Large Fireball/Meteor Airburst/Possible Meteorite Fall. Overland. Witness Location and Report: GPS co-ordinates exact; -23.1206183, 123.0419572, CSR WELL 22 - Historical landmark. DMS: 23°07'14.2"S 123°02'31.1"E. Georgia bore camp on canning stock route, few kms nearby. Sonic Boom heard approx 2mins later, heard rumble and distant boom. Colour: Blue, Light Blue. Direction: Travelling west. Time: 07:00 AWST. 23:00 UT Gibson Desert, NW Australia. Duration: ≈7.5s

Beaked whales die in Western Australia and Florida

2025, December 29. Western Australia, Dunsborough, at a Quindalup beach (near Grove Street). Two beaked whales were stranded and euthanised. See December 16 post. 2025, December 12. Western Australia. Fireball. Travelling WSW. Velocity: 68km/s. Duration: 3:04 seconds. Altitude: (131 to 102km).

2025, December 29. USA, Florida, Fort Walton Beach. A beaked whale was found dead.

Florida

Meteor Airburst over South Pacific Ocean

2025, December 16. South Pacific Ocean, between Isla de Pascua (Easter Island) and Chile. Airburst. Time: 20:58:12. Coordinates: (24.1S, 92.4W). Altitude: 25.0km. Energy: 9.6e10, or 290,000 kg/TNT. This is the 31st airburst of 2025.

Also watching two events. One in the North Sea on the 13th and the other in Western Australia on the 12th.

Airburst near Atlanta

2025, June 26. USA, Georgia, east of Blacksville and 50km SSE of Atlanta. Medium Airburst. Coordinates: (33.4N, 84.1W). Seen as far north as Cleveland in Ohio over 900km away. Altitude: 32.6 km. Energy: e = 17, -e = 48 or 480,000 kg/TNT. Sound: Had delayed and concurrent properties. Between 12:15 and 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, more than 100 reports of a possible fireball were submitted to the American Meteor Society website from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Update: A meteor fragment has hit a house (crashed through the roof and floor). Tremor felt.

GOES-19, a NOAA satellite.  

Also 2025, June 25. Western Australia, Indian Ocean. Meteor. Approximately 260km south of Hamelin Bay. Velocity: 55.2 km/s. Duration: 2.52 sec. Coordinates: LLB: (-36.57, 114.61), LLE: ( -37.56, 113.67). Height: 114.58 to 99.71 km. Time: 16:33. A Marine Animal Disturbance Alert should still be noted for this region, even though it would be extremely unlucky to have a cetacean stranding. The meteors over the last two weeks are not large, just moderately consistent. 

Marine Animal Disturbance Alert for Western Australia

2025, June 7. Western Australia, Great Australian Bight, 460km south of Perth. Meteor. Shower (Daytime Arietids). Coordinates: (B -36.14, 116.06, E-36.70, 114.95). Velocity: 43km/s. Duration: 2.04 seconds. Height B to E: 103-96km. Another one that started 7 minutes later on the mainland, broke up on entry. With the migration season well underway, a Marine Animal Disturbance Alert should be noted for the SW coastal region of Western Australia. Areas such as Busselton and Bunbury are at higher risk.

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.

Marine Animal Disturbance alert for Western Australia coastline

Marine Animal Disturbance alert for Western Australia coastline. Perth to Albany. Duration for next two weeks. This is not as large as the April 15 event causing the April 25 stranding; however, the quantity of accompanying debris warrants a watch. The atmosphere is volatile at the moment. With every incident, valuable data will be obtained to narrow the field of meteoroids responsible for marine disturbances.

2024, July 29. Western Australia, Indian Ocean. Meteor. Time: 20:04. Coordinates: (-34.98, 112.9) (-35.8, 113.57). Velocity: 41.5 km/s. Duration: 2.76 sec. Height: 108.8 to 82.6 km.

Meteor Map – Fireballs Aotearoa

April 15 event

South Africa has three humpbacks in one day strand

2024, July 8. South Africa, Cape Town. Meteor. Time: 18:55.  

2024, July 15. South Africa, Schoenmakerskop, Willows Gate 5. It is one of three humpback whale carcasses that stranded on Monday on Eastern Cape shores and one of six that have washed up this winter. Two other humpback carcasses washed ashore at Thyspunt near Oyster Bay and at Kasouga on the Sunshine Coast.

Humpback whale carcass washes ashore at Willows (heraldlive.co.za)

Also: 2024, July 15. Western Australia, Geraldton, Pages Beach. Large whale carcass washes ashore.

Meteor off Albany watch - updated 20240617

Hopefully, the whales are taking a detour. I'm not overly worried about this just a curious stone. It will give me some scale on electrophonic events if anything does happen. A mass stranding is unlikely (looking at this) however a stranding of something wouldn't surprise me because the field of view is limited and for every object 50 more go undetected??? The time of year is not great. The event is neither good, bad or ugly??? The two objects at the bottom mean the atmosphere is thick further out. I will see what is detected in the next few days, hopefully, the velocity was slow enough to cause any upset.

2024, June 14. Meteor. Coordinates: LB:119.20, LB: -35.07, LE: 120.13, LE: -35.03. Velocity: 23.07 km/s. Duration 3.99 seconds. Height 102.1 to 75.86 km.

Meteor Map – Fireballs Aotearoa

Update: 20240617

This reminds me of New Zealand a month or so ago. You need a major event or a cluster to corner animals. Like New Zealand, it's difficult to read with the data seen. Observations from the public are beneficial, and the lack of supported meteor sightings suggests that it would need a large camera-detected event to warrant a watch for a mass stranding. As in New Zealand, animals will move away from areas that are annoying to their senses, if it's a slow progression of activity. Also, the atmosphere has been free of airbursts in the Southern Ocean so injured animals swimming north are reduced. As stated before NASA doesn't pick up all activity although looking at global data latitude airbursts have been concentrated towards the equatorial regions.

Meteor Map – Fireballs Aotearoa

Similarities between strandings in Western Australia and meteor activity

Last year. 2023, July 25. Western Australia. A pod of 97 Black Dolphins strand at Cheynes Beach, east of Albany. At least 52 whales die.

A few days before: 2023, July 21. Western Australia, west of Albany. Meteor. Time: 12:03. Velosity: 44km/s. Traveling N.W. Duration 2.54 seconds. Appeared in atmosphere at 112 km and ended at 90 km. This was part of a wider and very strong stream of meteors that came into the upper atmosphere that are not shown on the map below. The whales were basically driven to shore under heavy VLF radio waves.  

Map – Fireballs Aotearoa

Western Australia Whale Stranding and meteoroid update

Two other notable meteors came into the atmosphere 2 days before the April 26th stranding of the Black Dolphins. With the large one on the 15th (see posts below), these three events combined are a VLF Radio wave storm for whales.

2024, April 24. Western Australia. Time: 14:00UTC. Meteor. Velocity: 68km/s. Duration: 1.53 seconds. Location: S.W. of Albany in the Southern Ocean. Traveling W.N.W.

2024, April 24. Western Australia. Time: 20:03UTC. Meteor. Velocity: 55km/s. Duration: 3.12 seconds. Location: West of Albany. Started over land and ended in the Southern Ocean. Travelling W.S.W.

Map – Fireballs Aotearoa

Whale stranding in Western Australia - Updated 20240426 at 15:30. 150 whales saved, well done to the rescuers

See the April 18th post titled: Meteor, Indian Ocean south of Perth, Western Australia.

2024, April 25. Western Australia, Tobys Inlet, between Dunsborough and Busselton, 250km south of Perth. Up to 160 pilot whales. There are four pods of whales spread across 500 metres of beach with another two pods of about 130 animals offshore in the ocean. 26 have already died. 

Final Update: 160 whales beached, 130 whales have been refloated and 28 whales died. Spotter planes are keeping a watch to see if they are staying offshore. The real blessing about this event is they came in during the day, if they had come in late in the night it could have been a real disaster. Sad about the other whales but this is a really good outcome.

2024, April 26. Western Australia, Eagle Bay. 2 Black Dolphins. Linked to above event. A lone Black Dolphin calf has been euthanised. Also Quindalup Beach had been closed while one Black Dolphin that had washed up there overnight was removed.

Authorities respond to mass whale stranding at Toby's Inlet, near Dunsborough in WA (msn.com)

Rescue crews scramble to save pilot whales beached in Marybrook, near Busselton and Dunsborough | The West Australian

Mass stranding of pilot whales at Toby's Inlet near Dunsborough | The Canberra Times | Canberra, ACT

Meteor, Indian Ocean south of Perth, Western Australia

Watch for marine disturbance after meteor. This wasn't a large or low meteor by any means; however, it is significant enough to warrant a post because of the migration patterns for marine life this time of year. 

2024, April 16. Western Australia, Indian Ocean, S.W of Perth. Meteor. Location: (-34.29, 113.09). Time: 15:33UCT. Velocity: 63.87 km/s. Flight Duration: It travelled 225km in 3.71 seconds.  

Thanks to Map – Fireballs Aotearoa for event data.

2018 Whale Stranding Event at Hamelin Bay in Western Australia caused by Meteor Airburst.

51 days after an airburst off the Western Australian coast 150 short-finned black dolphins were stranded.

Black dolphins or Short-finned pilot whales can travel exceedingly fast, up to 160 km a day. This is extremely rare for them to do. These animals are cheetahs of the sea, and a day at most would see this maintained. If a pod was within 100 - 150 km (conservative estimate) of this airburst the VLT radio waves or concussion results would have an effect. Usually, they travel from 40 to 100 km in a relaxed day. For argument's sake, I will take the bare minimum travel distance. A pod with juveniles travelling at 40 km a day, to travel 1943 km, would take 49 days to reach land at Hamelin Bay if they were slowed down by distress. This is 2 days before the 51-day airburst/stranding time reference.

Note: My research has estimated that electrophonic meteors, VLF radio waves, can admit through the environment well over 200 km away from an airburst incident.

2018, February 1. AIRBURST. Indian Ocean, off the Western Australian coast. (-19.4, 104.3). e = 19, -e = 0.53 or 530,000 kg of TNT. Altitude = 37km. Velocity = 16.5 km/s.

2018, March 23, Western Australia, Hamelin Bay. About 150 Short-Finned Black Dolphins strand at Hamelin Bay, south of Perth. 10Km north of Augusta. Volunteers save 7 individuals.

More than 150 whales strand in Hamelin Bay, Australia - 143 dead bodies only 7 rescued in video and pictures - Strange Sounds

Doomed to Extinction, deaths of marine species rising around the world.

In Bangladesh 3 dolphins, 1 porpoise and 1 turtle were found dead in three days. Two more dolphins were found dead on Inani sea beach of Cox’s Bazar on Friday. One of them is a Irrawaddy dolphin and another is Indo Pacific Humpback. Scientists are at a loss to explain these deaths?

New Zealand Meteor shower outburst. Whale Stranding Watch.

Iota Centauri, Centauri, is a star in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Large outburst. This combined with the Alpha centaurids has created problems for marine species around New Zealand. Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia should be on watch for whale strandings.

The Iota Centaurid meteor shower, designated as IAU shower no. 919, exhibited unusually strong activity during the period from January 21 to 26, 2024. This shower corresponds to solar longitudes between 301.0 and 306.0 degrees (equinox J2000.0). Here are some details about this fascinating celestial event:

Triangulated Meteors:

CAMS New Zealand detected 48 iota Centaurids under the coordination of J. Baggaley (University of Canterbury) and J. Scott (University of Otago).

CAMS Australia observed 34 shower meteors via H. Devillepoix (Curtin University) and D. Rollinson.

CAMS Chile recorded 16 shower meteors with contributions from S. Heathcote and T. Abbott (NOIRLAB/Cerro Tololo) and E. Jehin (University of Liege).


Iota Centaurid meteors showed stronger than usual activity (seti.org)

A pod of 35-40 false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins have been refloated in a strong and coordinated effort by locals New Zealand.

A pod of 35-40 false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins have been refloated in a strong and coordinated effort by locals after stranding on an East Cape beach of Taylor's Bay this afternoon.  

Whale pod saved by locals after East Cape beach stranding (1news.co.nz)

Monthly meteors in the region so far.

Yesterday. 

Map – Fireballs Aotearoa

Alpha centaurids and whale stranding watch.

Even though the Alpha centaurids are a minor meteor shower there should be a lookout for marine occurrences during this time (whale standings). It begins at the end of January and carries through until February 21. In 2024, it will peak on the evening of February 8 - 9. Because the stream isn’t as robust as larger showers, only about six peaks per hour are produced even during the peak. That’s compared to more than 100 per hour during the Perseids, in August.