The mass beaching of more than 150 melon-headed whales on Japanese neaches has fueled fears of a repeat of a seemingly unrelated event in the nation — the devastating 2011 undersea earthquake that killed about 19,000 people in the ensuing tsunami.
Despite a lack of scientific evidence linking the two events, netizens have pointed to the appearance of about 50 melon-headed whales — a species that is a member of the dolphin family — on Japan’s beaches six days prior to the earthquake, which unleashed a tsunami and triggered a nuclear disaster.
Scientists yesterday dissected the whale carcasses, 156 of which were found on two beaches on Japan’s Pacific coast a day earlier, but could not say what caused the beachings.
Photo: Reuters
“We don’t see any immediate signs of diseases on their bodies, such as cancer. We want to figure out what killed these animals,” National Museum of Nature and Science senior researcher Tadasu Yamada told Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
Despite the lack of any clear link between whale beachings and earthquakes — and comments from local officials downplaying such a possibility — many Japanese netizens took to social media to suggest a connection.
“Is the next one coming? Be ready for a quake,” Twitter user maoeos40d posted.
Another Twitter user wrote: “We might have a big one on the 12th [of April].”
The 2011 Japan earthquake is not the only instance of beached whales closely preceding a massive tremor.
More than 100 pilot whales died in a mass stranding incident on a remote New Zealand beach on Feb. 20, 2011, two days before a large earthquake struck the nation’s second-largest city, Christchurch.
Japanese officials have nevertheless tried to calm fears, and have insisted there is no scientific data to prove a link.
Scientists are unclear why whales strand themselves in groups, with some speculating healthy animals beach themselves while trying to help sick or disorientated family members that are stranded.
Others believe the topography of certain places somehow scrambles the whales’ sonar navigation, causing them to beach.
Once stranded, the whales are vulnerable to dehydration and sunburn until rescuers can use the high tide to move them back into deeper water.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS