Beaked whale strandings and naval exercises
Mass strandings of beaked whales (family Ziphiidae) have been reported in the scientific liter-ature since 1874. Several recent mass strandings of beaked whales have been reported to coincide with naval active sonar exercises. To obtain the broad-est assessment of surface ship naval active sonar operations coinciding with beaked whale mass strandings, a list of global naval training and anti-submarine warfare exercises was compiled from openly available sources and compared by location and time with historic stranding records. This list includes activities of navies of other nations but emphasizes recent U.S. activities because of what is available in publicly accessible sources.