Mass beaching fuels ‘unscientific’ Japan quake fears

TOKYO: The mass beaching of more than 150 melon-headed whales on Japan’s shores has fuelled fears of a repeat of a seemingly unrelated event in the country — the devastating 2011 undersea earthquake that killed around 19,000 people.
Despite a lack of scientific evidence linking the two events, a flurry of online commentators have pointed to the appearance of around 50 melon-headed whales — a species that is a member of the dolphin family — on Japan’s beaches six days prior to the monster quake, which unleashed a towering tsunami and triggered a nuclear disaster.
Scientists were on Saturday dissecting the bodies of the whales, 156 of which were found on two beaches on Japan’s Pacific coast a day earlier, but could not say what caused the beachings.