“Many of the animals were already found dead, so it seems that they had been stranded during the night,” Dan Jarvis, BDMLR's Director of Welfare, said. Speaking to CNN on Monday, he explained that whales can only survive for around six hours on land before they start to deteriorate.

Specifically, food sources for whales like menhaden, are forced to adapt to the rising temperatures by moving landward to a more favorable location. Whales follow their food source, and the closer to land they get, the more likely they are to come into conflict with human activities (ie. be hit by a vessel).

Cetaceans belong in the sea and being too long on land can lead to fatal exposure – like a human in a desert. Without the support of water, the sheer weight of larger species can also simply crush their internal organs, leading to death.

Whales can strand while fleeing predators, become trapped by tides, weather and topography, or just get lost. “But our impact on marine ecosystems these days is multiple and pervasive, and the rate of these events is increasing,” says Brownlow.

The beaching of a single, live animal is usually the result of sickness or injury. Bad weather, old age, navigation errors, and hunting too close to shore also contribute to beachings. Some whale and dolphin species are more prone to mass beachings. Toothed whales (Odontoceti) are the most commonly affected.

Large strandings TotalDeathsLocation1,0001,000Chatham Islands, New Zealand656335South Island, New Zealand500+500+Teal Inlet, Falkland Islands470362Tasmania, Australia6 more rows

(0800 362 468). New Zealand is a hotspot for marine mammal strandings. Since 1840, more than 5,000 strandings of whales and dolphins have been recorded around the New Zealand coast. Strandings occur all year round and usually involve just one or two animals.