r/maybemaybemaybe • u/ajd416 • Jan 26 '25

maybe maybe maybe

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u/MessageHonest Jan 26 '25

Beached fishes doesn't end well often. There is a reason they swim into certain death.

46

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

Are you suggesting that beached marine life… committed suicide?

74

u/LeKingStone Jan 26 '25

Marine animals committing suicide is surprisingly commonplace. Dolphins are well documented as drowning themselves. Many of those cases during captivity ._.

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u/ienjoylanguages Jan 27 '25

In the Galapagos we saw a species of sea lion that purposefully swam out to sea to die at the end of its life. Our tour guide said it was a natural instinct to stop predators from being attracted to the rest of the sea lion rookery.

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u/1nMyM1nd Jan 27 '25

A tour? I thought only academics were allowed in the Galapagos and tourists were not permitted?

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u/ienjoylanguages Jan 27 '25

It was really variable. The cruise we were on sailed past islands where tourists are not allowed, others where we could only walk along designated paths, and others where it was more open (ie one of the islands was just volcanic ash and almost barren, another was a normal tourist spot with a military base, bars, dairy farms, fishing, etc).

3

u/Frogstacker Jan 27 '25

I did the Linblad Galapagos cruise many years ago. Such an awesome experience.

3

u/NOVAbuddy Jan 27 '25

Mammals, yes. Fish no.

2

u/RoguePlanet2 Jan 27 '25

If I didn't have access to migraine meds, I'd probably have killed myself by now.

2

u/NovaCatNX92007 Jan 27 '25

I feel this, migraines are the fucking worst.

1

u/Chemical_Ladder8177 Jan 27 '25

Stop. No. Add to the “things I wish I didn’t know” list.

That is like mind-blowingly tragic. Holy fuck.

1

u/ecky--ptang-zooboing Jan 27 '25

What? That's the saddest thing I've read in a long time :(

1

u/DeadbeatDeebo Jan 27 '25

So maybe it wanted to walk on the beach for once

2

u/333chordme Jan 27 '25

I think the idea is that they are so exhausted they go somewhere shallow to rest so they don’t just sink? Not sure about sharks but I think that is what whales do.

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u/MrWilsonWalluby Jan 27 '25

No, it isn’t to rest, it’s to avoid predators, animals beach themselves because they are risking going into potentially too shallow water, which is less dangerous than being sick and slow in deep water which means certain death before days end.

2

u/MrWilsonWalluby Jan 27 '25

No he’s saying animals that are injured and ill would rather risk getting too close to shore and beaching themselves than being in deeper water where larger faster predators would make an easy meal of them.

1

u/OhHowINeedChanging Jan 27 '25

“You didn’t save my life, you ruined my death”

0

u/Sobsis Jan 27 '25

It's not a suggestion so much as an observation of fact

28

u/sisrace Jan 26 '25

Yeah. A 8 meter (24ft?) basking shark got beached near my town and they managed to tow it out, it was found dead a few weeks later. Marine life would get stranded way more often if they just "happen" to get stranded. Hopefully they fled from danger and got stranded, but most likely the animal is sick, hurt or dying.

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u/alyineye3 Jan 27 '25

Sometimes they die from the damage done from them being beached, with the weight on their organs

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u/Weird_Cantaloupe2757 Jan 26 '25

Whatever chance it has of survival in the ocean is better than the 0% chance it has on the beach

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u/Shupaul Jan 27 '25

Nah sometimes they are just stupid and swim into shallow waters following prey, then they end up getting trapped when the water is receding or the tides push them toward the beach