Cetacean Strandings: Of Sound and Sociability

In recent decades, recorded strandings of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) have been increasing globally. Cetaceans are recognised as ecosystem and climate sentinels, and their strandings are often taken as signs of disturbing changes occurring in the world’s oceans. In this article, I investigate mass stranding events in Scotland from 1913 to 2025. Through an acoustemological framework I pay attention to the ‘sound of stranding’, considering not only the contribution of human noise to cetacean strandings, but also the effects of cetacean sounds on humans and the role of sound in the human care for and memorialisation of stranded cetaceans. This approach unites acoustic phenomena and sensibilities usually treated separately by diverse scientific, humanities and artistic disciplines. The focus on sound as sense-making provides fresh insight into the embodied, affective and reciprocal nature of the evolutionary, ontological and social relations between humans and cetaceans.