Acclaimed whale expert Philip Hoare is in New Zealand where he spoke to TVNZ1's Seven Sharp about all things whale - including the latest theory on why the mammals strand.
One big new theory in the world of whale research relates to solar activity - which may lead the mammals to land.
"So solar charges, solar pulses coming from the sun - the same things that create the aurora, the aurora australis and the aurora borealis - that same effect can affect their natural GPS, their natural navigation systems and deceive them into going into shallow waters and then stranding," Hoare says.
"We know there was a big stranding back in 2016 - dozens of whales stranded all around the world - and pretty much linked to a lot of solar activity".
Hoare said he first realised he was a whale fanatic when he started going on whale watches, saying, "The captain started looking at me really weirdly like 'Who is this guy?' My friend accused me of being a whale stalker."
Hoare's obsession with watching whales soon led to writing about them, which soon became a full-time gig.
"I work a lot in Cape Cod (in the US) with a humpback whale research team there. I talk to a lot of scientists, and that's my job, really - to be the conduit between all that incredible science that's going on there that sometimes stays in the lab and I want to bring that out."
"I get paid to go and see whales - I get paid to do this."
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