Arun Shanker, A.V.M.Subba Rao

Cetacean strandings have been a common occurrence in the past and has been recorded in various places. There have been attempts to explain the phenomenon of mass beaching with various theories. Here in this article we propose a hypothesis on the recent mass stranding of Short-finned pilot whales Globicephala macrorhynchus in the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, India. We propose that navigation disturbance and signal distortion due to ocean topography could be a possible reason for this mass stranding.