New research suggests that the Sun may be the cause for gray whales to die from aground

The gray whale is one of the most migratory species in the animal kingdom, with an annual journey of more than 16,000 km from the North Pole to Mexico. Most of the journey, they will move along the coast - however if these whales swim too close to the shore, they will probably be stranded. And often, aground also means the death of this giant fish.

In fact, whale grounding is very rare. However, only a series of groundings have occurred in 2019 - including dozens of whales died collectively on the coast of Iceland in July last year.

New research suggests that the Sun may be the cause for gray whales to die from aground Picture 1

And recently, research by scientists has shown that: most likely, but the sun storm is the cause of the shallow whale of the gray whales. Specifically, they studied weather conditions during the days when a whale ran aground. The results that the scientists obtained showed that these days, the sun appears a lot of black spots, thereby contributing to the situation of magnetic disturbances on Earth.

According to the team, it is likely that the gray whales have relied on the Earth's magnetic field to move, and the magnetic field disturbed by solar storms caused the giant fish to "get lost".

New research suggests that the Sun may be the cause for gray whales to die from aground Picture 2

Jesse Granger and his colleagues in the research team re-examined the sun's activity data during the days when the gray whale phenomenon ran aground, from 1985 to 2018. Accordingly, every day. during a solar storm, the probability for whales to run aground increases 2.3 times.

And if solar storms are actually the cause of this phenomenon, how does it affect whales? Do storms make whales lose their ability to navigate, or simply confuse them in determining their course?

New research suggests that the Sun may be the cause for gray whales to die from aground Picture 3

To solve this problem, the team continued to compare the relationship between stranding and two other variables: radio wave (RF) and AP index. Accordingly, solar storms increase radio interference, and this is thought to affect the ability of animals to navigate according to the Earth's magnetic field. Meanwhile, the AP index will show the degree of fluctuations of the Earth's magnetic field during solar storms. The result was that the RF value was usually high during the days when the whale ran aground, but the team found no significant association between the AP value and the stranded fish.

"After digging into the RF and AP values, we found that, if the gray whale ran aground due to the effects of a solar storm, then it was due to the ability of the whale to navigate. have problems these days, not because the Earth's magnetic field fluctuates. "

Of course, solar storms are probably not the only cause of a beach whale's aground. Humans are also likely to contribute a part to this phenomenon, with global warming and changing marine environments.

According to vice