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Sites of larger live mass strandings (10 to 250 individuals) for five selected odontocete (toothed whale) species around Australia are examined to see if they have any characteristics or properties which might be related to the strandings. Bays are the significant coastal unit in the 66 events reported over a 100 year period; only three events were not within bays but on open sandy coastlines. Species, species adult size and bay size do not appear to be factors in these larger stranding events. The reason for the association of bays with larger mass strandings is not obvious. Many of the bays have simple planform and uncomplicated bathymetry. However, they share some properties previously associated with strandings that are a consequence of the processes of bay formation. Coastal locations other than particular types of bays do not necessarily have all of these properties, potentially explaining why these bays dominate the Australian mass stranding record. A chain of geomorphological, physical, and biological factors can be constructed to explain the role of the bays in mass strandings. Regardless of this possible explanation, there is an observed correlation of particular site properties with larger live mass strandings about Australia which might be expected to have predictive power in indicating potential mass stranding sites. This is particularly apparent when key properties of stranding sites are defined and compared in terms of simple quantitative thresholds. The sites of herd strandings around New Zealand generally exhibit the expected properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

An introduction is presented in which the guest editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the mass strandings of cetaceans in Thailand, the threats to cetaceans in Sri Lankan island, and cetacean sightings and strandings in Maldives. more...

The article discusses a research study on cetacean strandings from 1851 to 2009 in the San Diego County, California comprising 717 strandings of mysticete and odontocete species. Percentages of commonly stranded dolphins include the short-beaked dolphins and long-beaked dolphins at 43.2%, gray whales at 11.0% and Pacific white-sided dolphins at 7.0% mostly observed in Coronado/Imperial Beach and Jolla Beach areas. Observed were extralimital strandings of harbour porpoises seen to be associated with oceanographic condition changes. Results indicated biomodal strandings trend with the average stranding rate at 15.% from 1972 to 2008 during the months of March through August and seasonality strandings for short-and long-beaked dolphins peaking from March to July. more...

An introduction to reports published within the issue is presented, including one by Kerri Danil et al, on a long series of whale stranding data from 1851-2008 in San Diego County, California and one by Aline Schaffar et al, on humpback whales in New Caledonia that are being exposed to unregulated whalewatching activities. more...