It was recently been reported that thirty false killer whales swam ashore in Thailand on the isle of Phuket. With fast help from local residents and hotel staff all but one was saved. The whales, upto 4.2m in length, came ashore on one of the tourist Thailand beaches on Racha Island in the Andaman Sea were the residents and hotel staff acted quickly and together to carry them back to the rough seas.

It was decided that for the safety of people ten of the whales would be loaded onto trucks and transferred to another beach about a mile away, where calmer waters made it easier to return them to sea. Unfortunately during this transfer one of the whales died from shock.

Staff at the Phuket Marine Biological Center are not sure why the whales ran aground but have said “They may have done so because of the strong waves, or they could have been misled by their leader’s sonar signal.”(src) This is not the first time false killer whales have ran aground on Thailand beaches but this was a very large number to be beached together. Scientifically classified as dolphins these social creatures and are well known for stranding themselves.