Whales are intelligent but when they come too close to shore, it can end in tragedy. When thirty sperm whales were stranded on the North Sea coast in 2016, photos of the dying animals shocked scientists, the media, and the general public around the world.
Other species of whales have also demonstrated unusual behaviour in recent years. Bottlenose dolphins strayed into the Baltic Sea and didn’t hesitate to approach humans. A rare Sowerby’s beaked whale was stranded in the Baltic and starved to death.
Whales are continually under stress wherever they are – on the Baltic and North Sea coasts, in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, or off the Canaries. Marine biologist and filmmaker Florian Graner desperately wants to find out what causes whales to become disorientated, and why they are currently so endangered.
