The Relationship of Space Weather and Geomagnetic Activity to Cetacean Strandings

Space weather affects Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, both of which shield human life from many potentially disastrous impacts. Fluctuations in space weather lead to negative impacts with power grids, aviation systems, and satellites, to name a few. Geomagnetic effects are known to disturb certain species such as pigeons, yet the effects on marine animals lives are not very well known. Data on marine animal strandings, or beachings, was retrieved from the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources from the years of 2012 through 2014, as these years had the greatest activity due to solar maximum. We considered five locations throughout the U.S: Shumagin, Alaska; Fredericksburg, Virginia; Fresno, California; the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, which all have geomagnetic observatories that provide local magnetic field observations and useful stranding data within 200 miles of each observatory. The objective of the project is to continue the research of understanding space weathers influence on marine mammals and examine the localized effects of geomagnetic activity on these animals, which was first reported on the global level in by Ferrari (2016). The tested hypothesis is that localized geomagnetic disturbances affect marine mammal navigation and therefore are correlated with strandings. Our findings confirm that geomagnetic disturbances can play a role in marine mammal strandings, and could provide early guidance for the potential for these animals to land onshore.