When a pod of seemingly healthyyoung sperm whales pop washing upon the beaches of Northern Europe at the beginning of 2016 , it hadscientists and biologists baffled . theory regarding what cause the cetaceans to snuff it have vary , but now researchers think they may have solved the mystery , by wait to the sky .
In the weeks leading up to 29 whales washing up on the beaches of Germany , the Netherlands , the UK , and France , there was a specially strong Aurora Borealis ( northern lights ) just north of Norway , as a solvent of a bombastic solar storm hitting the major planet . This , the researchers contend , was enough to disrupt Earth ’s magnetic line of business and play havocwith the whales ' navigation , leading them to swim into the North Sea and become trapped .
publish their body of work in theInternational Journal of Astrobiology , the researchers think that the unusual northerly lights observed were indicative of a massive coronal mass ejection from the Sun that caused the magnetic champaign to wobble . This might explain why the untried whales , reliant on Earth ’s geomagnetic battleground for direction , and perfectly healthy with full stomachs and grim sponge loads , finally give way .
“ Sperm whales are very huge brute and swim in the spare sea so if they are disrupted by this effect , they can float in the wrong direction for day and then correct it , ” study co - author Dr Klaus Vanselow toldBBC News . “ But in the arena between Scotland and Norway , if the whales swim in the haywire centering for one or two days , then it is too former for them to go back , they are trapped . ”
scientist have been incertain about what caused the youthful heavyweight to of a sudden start stranding in 2016 . As they were all males , it is thought they were members of a undivided knight bachelor pod , traveling the oceans together until intimate maturity . In the Atlantic , many sperm hulk exist around the Azores , but at around 10 to 15 years of eld , bachelor-at-arms whales head to the Arctic in search of squid .
One of the primary theory suggest to explain the strandings was that the whales were chase a school of squid , luring them into the North Sea . Because this patch of body of water is so shallow – just 60 meters ( 200 feet ) deep in stead – and the spermatozoan heavyweight are typically deep - sea puppet , the whales got confused as their sonar bounced from the seabed and baffled them , causing the animals to strand .
Instead of squid , however , it now seems that a massive celestial storm led to the inauspicious deaths of these impressive cetaceans .
