Several dead whales that washed up on the north coast of Cyprus on Thursday and Friday probably died as a result of the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria.
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Yiannos Ioannou, an official from Cyprus' Department of Fisheries, said that the rare Cuvier's Beaked Whales were washed ashore east of the city of Polis Chrysochous.
Two out of four of the whales found on Thursday were still alive and unharmed, and were pushed back into the sea by volunteers from a local youth center.
The next day, three more whales were found on northern beaches controlled by the Turkish army.
"The fact that the mass beaching of whales occurred on coasts which are... near the epicenter of the quake in Türkiye cannot be coincidence. It seems that their deaths may be connected to the effects of the quake," he said.
Some of the whales found on Friday could be the same ones that were pushed back into the sea the previous day. Experts are now examining the carcasses of the whales to establish whether they died from the effects of the quake on the ecosystem in the region, Ioannou said.
Other possible causes for their deaths could be naval exercises, or seismic operations for the discovery of hydrocarbons. However, no such activities have been reported in the region.