Editing Openai/691a2c65-8cbc-8011-a9e4-17f22e37f0e9 (section)

==== 1. Once a big whale is fully beached, its body starts to fail fast ====

For a large whale, lying on sand is like having a car on your chest for hours.

Common things that happen when a big whale strands:
* Crushing of internal organs and lungs – Their own weight compresses the chest and abdomen, making breathing and circulation progressively harder.car-spaw-rac.org<ref>{{cite web|title=car-spaw-rac.org|url=https://www.car-spaw-rac.org/IMG/pdf/MARINE_MAMMALS-_STRANDINGS.pdf|publisher=car-spaw-rac.org|access-date=2025-11-17}}</ref>
* Muscle breakdown & kidney damage – Being immobilized leads to something like a massive “crush injury,” releasing toxins from crushed muscles into the blood. That can cause organ failure even if they do get back in the water.car-spaw-rac.org<ref>{{cite web|title=car-spaw-rac.org|url=https://www.car-spaw-rac.org/IMG/pdf/MARINE_MAMMALS-_STRANDINGS.pdf|publisher=car-spaw-rac.org|access-date=2025-11-17}}</ref>
* Severe exhaustion & shock – By the time a whale hits the beach and stays, it’s usually already very sick, starving, injured, or disoriented.

So from the outside it can look like “they just decided to give up,” but from the medical side, the whale may already be in a spiral it cannot recover from.