Why do whales come to shore?
455674
if they are sick their sonar is off and they lose direction.  Often times, they end up on shore.  Perhaps it is natures way of weeding out the sick and weak.  Still very sad.
187815
Whales communicate through what is known as whale song. These sounds are extremely loud and can be heard for miles. They have been known to generate about 20,000 acoustic watts of sound at 163 decibels. This sound is used by humpback whales and one species of blue whale.\n\nToothed whales such as orcas use high-frequency forms of clicks and whistles. It can act like a form of sonar.\n\nThey also communicate through signals breaching where they thrust themselves out of the water. As this costs the whale 1% of its energy, these signals are not taken lightly.
542087
The ocean that marine fishes live in covers 71% of the earth's surface, making a huge body of water in which they swim. As a result of this expansive habitat, fishes use sound to help in both finding mates and protecting the territory in which they live.\n\nFishes also use sound to defend their territory and warn other aquatic animals of their presence in the area
154594
This is a stupid question! To reproduce and for fun! Humans and dolphins are the only mammals that have sex for fun.
307943
Killer Whales are very complicated creature and our biologist and scientist are yet to understand it fully.\n\nThis is Dolphin family.\n\nWhen a group, it is very ferocious to all the water species that includes even Sharks and some times Blue Whales.\n\nIt marches in the sea in a group of about 40 Killer Whales called school of Whales. During that time, it tarments and kills all who come across or confront with it.\n\nThe biggest strength of Killer Whales are its speed and acrobatic swimming skills.\n\nAs for as the defence machanism is concern, it can easily escape from any velunarable situation by its speed.\n\nIt is a friendly species of human being. There is no data that a Killer whale attacked a human being.
558077
Many whales live in colder waters and need the layer of fat to keep their body temperature constant.
375798
the blue whales excedes 4feet long
891350
People die in all sorts of places. Some of them go to certain places because they know there gonna die... so what's the difference for an animal... It's the Dolphins' natural instinct to go to land when they are ill or on the verge on dying.... It's not very often they wash up on shore by accident... maybe babies but most of the time its to die.
130394
One of the most spectacular surface activities, breaching occurs when a whale launches itself into the air, head first, and falls back into the water. Larger whales normally propel at least two-thirds of their bodies into the air, and then land in a belly flop, or turn to one side or onto their backs. Some also perform 'head-slaps', which resemble breaches but involve lifting only the head and top part of the body.\n\nHumpback whales have been known to breach more than 200 times in a single display. Scientists are still not entirely certain why whales breach, although there are numerous possible explanations: it may be a courtship display, a form of signalling, a way to herd fish or dislodge parasites, a show of strength or a challenge, or simply a form of play.
1015287
.WHALES AND DOLPHINS:\n\nWhales and Dolphins are marine animals. They live in oceans around the world. Whales and Dolphins come from the same family, CETACEA (sey-tay-sha) . They both breath from a blowhole located at the top of their head. Whales and dolpins are mammals. They are mammals because they have lungs not gills,they have hair not scales , and they also have give live birth and don't lay eggs. There are only about 80 kinds of whales and dolphins that we know of right now.\n\nWHALES:\nWhales are very large animals. They can grow up to 100 ft. or more in length. They can weigh up to 200 tons or more. Whales live in families called pods. These pods vary in numbers and consist of family members and family friends. Whales live in these families their whole life. Group living is safer when other whales or sharks attack. It also makes it easier to find food. Whales are always migrating. They travel to find food, breed and have young.\nWhales do not have eyelids. They rely on thick oily tears to protect their eyes. Whales hear from little holes behind their eyes.\n\nWhales talk to each other by making high pitched sounds like whistles, clicks, squeaks, rattles, and groans.\n\nTo help protect the whales from extinction please DO NOT throw nets, fishing lures, or other fishing gear ocean\n\nDOLPHINS:\nDolphins live with the whales in the oceans. But dolphins come much closer to the shore. They will come as close to the shore as you or I can walk without going under water. Dolphins have teeth.\nLooking at a dolphin you would not think it as a nose, but surprise...it does! They have nostrils called blowholes. Over millions of years of evoloution whales and dolphins nostrils moved to the top of their head. This allows them to breath by surfacing instead of them sticking their whole head out of the water.\nThe first thing a newborn dolphin must do is to go to the surface to breathe. But the baby can not swim so its mother and a another dolphin will help push the baby to the surface for its first breath of air. The baby will be able to swim in about 30 min.\nDolphins are fast swimmers. When a speeding boat passes the bottlenose dolphin, it will start to race out in front . They will take off hitting the water and keep going.\nDolphins navigate by following the hills and mountains of the ocean floor, by tracking the sun, by sensing currents, and by tasting the water along the journey.\nA dolphin's sound probably originated in its nasal passages. These nasal passages are located on the top of the head. Dolphins can make sounds to see what lies ahead. This sense is called echolocations. The dolphins' sound waves hit an object and the echo bounces back. Echolocation sounds are called sprays. Sprays are so strong they can stun another whale. Dolphins don't "point" their melons at any other sealife except their enemies.\n\nSHARKS:\nOut of all the species walking, flying, slithering or swimming, there aren't many who have been around as long, survived as well, or come in so many shapes and kinds as the shark. The earliest evidences of sharks are isolated spines, teeth and scales that appeared about 430 million years ago in the Silurian Period, known as the "Age of Fishes". Sharks have a sleek, streamlined design which helps them swim without using up a lot of energy.They certainly need to conserve their energy because they never really sleep and most of them never stop swimming.\n\nSome sharks are fierce predators, and would be happy to eat you if they encountered you. Almost any shark six feet or longer is a potential danger, but three species have been identified repeatedly in attacks: the Great White Shark, the Tiger Shark and the Bull Shark . All three live world wide, reach large sizes and eat large prey such as marine mammals or sea turtles. But most sharks never grow longer than five feet and never even see anyone with legs and arms anyway. People kill thousands more sharks every year than sh
219175
Japan.\n\nThey still send out whaling ships to kill whales.\n\nKeep in mind, that just because it is illegal in some countries to kill whales and dolphins, it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. People just don't get caught. Or, sometimes they are accidentally killed in fishing nets.
872252
I like whales and dolphins. They are magestic and some are huge, not all of them though. I like them so much, I plan to go college to get my doctor's degree so I can study them as a cetologist.
891575
I agree entirely. How many whales do they need to kill to do this research anyway? Whales are becoming endangered and it would be very sad to lose them. To take action, there are lots of petitios against this behavior through http://www.care2.com. Togethere we can make a difference!
718005
Mainly their thick outer layer of blubber is able to absorb a lot of the pressure.  Their immense size does help even it out.  Unfortunately, even though they are built to be able to dive that deeply, it's not a harmless thing.  Whales do get the bends.  Often whale bones, especially those of sperm whales, show signs of nitrogen bubbles in the blood and tissues.  Over time it does cause them pain and in some rare cases some deformity.  So they're designed to be able to do it, but it is not risk-free to the whale.  There is a biological cost.
97758
Nobody knows, and anybody who claims they do know are talking nonsense.\n\nPeople have put forwards lots of theories, from the pods trying to rescue sick members who have beached themselves to the effect of marine sonar or pollution. The problem is that no theory fits all the known records of beachings.\n\nWe can rule out all technological and therefore most human causes simply because whale beachings have been recorded regularly for the past 1000 years at least, and sporadically before that. Taking into account the extent of reportage and so forth before the popularisation of newspapers it appears that beachings haven't increased or decreased since Jesus was a boy. If pollution, sonar or other human pollution is having any effect on whales it isn't affecting beachings.\n\nThe idea that sick animals are beaching theselves and drawing in the rest of the pod seems slightly more plausible. The only problem is that several individuals becah themselves round the world every week and their pods don't follow them in. So why does it only happen sometimes? We then have the added problem that the beachings are quite often mass events. A beach will be deserted and then covered in whales half an hour later. That is highly implausible if it were caused by sick animals wandering onto the beach and the others wandering in after it. It seems to be a concerted effort. \n\nThe sick animal idea also doesn't account for the fact that whales that do float free either naturally or with humans assistance often beach themsleves again within days on  another beach.\n\n\nWhales probably beach themselves for lots of reasons. Sometimes it is because they simply don't see the beach until it is too late, sometimes they probably are trying to aid a comrade, sometimes the pod may have been posioned by human pollution or simply a red tide, sometimes they are chased onto the beach by charks or killer whales and so forth. Trying to assign one cause to whale beachings is like trying to assign one cause to cats getting stuck in trees or one cause to people having car accidents. Each case is unique with unique contributing factors.
537748
Dolphins are most active when the herd is threatened. They will form a defensive line from attackers.
331230
Yes.  A whale is a mammal, and one characteristic of all mammals is that they reproduce sexually.