Six days before the massive magnitude-9 earthquake that triggered the devastating March 11, 2011 tsunami in northeastern Japan, 50 melon-headed whales beached themselves in the area. This week, over 150 melon-headed whales beached themselves on two beaches is the same vicinity. Is this another warning from the whales? Will anyone listen this time?

On April 9, 2015, almost 160 melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra), members of the oceanic dolphin family related to pilot whales and pygmy killer whales, were found beached on a 4 km (2.5 mile) section of beach in Hokotashi City, Ibaraki Prefecture. The Ibaraki coast guard reported the whales were near death. They saved a few but were forced to euthanize those not already dead. Tadasu Yamada, a senior researcher at National Museum of Nature and Science, gave this comment.

We don’t see any immediate signs of diseases on their bodies, such as cancer. We want to figure out what killed these animals.

Ibaraki Prefecture is also where the 50 melon-headed whales were found beached in 2011, six days before the earthquake and only 100 kilometers (62 miles) from its epicenter.

Before you say coincidence, in February 2011, over 100 pilot whales (close relatives of melon-headed whales) beached themselves on New Zealand’s Stewart Island less than 48 hours before an earthquake hit there. In the months right before the 2004 Indian Ocean (aka Boxing Day) earthquake and tsunami that killed over 230,000 people, over 170 whales beached themselves in New Zealand and Australia.

Indian professor Dr. Arunachalam Kumar believes there is a connection between the beaching of marine mammals and earthquakes.

It is my observation, confirmed over the years, that mass suicides of whales and dolphins that occur sporadically all over the world, are in some way related to change and disturbances in the electromagnetic field co-ordinates and possible realignments of geotectonic plates thereof.

“Beaching” makes these incidents sound like accidents. “Mass suicide” is a warning. Is anyone listening to the whales this time?