Mass beaching of whales fuels unscientific quake fears in Japan

Local residents try to save melon-headed dolphins stranded on the coast in Hokota, north-east of Tokyo on April 10, 2015. -- PHOTO: AFP.

Despite a lack of scientific evidence linking the two events, a flurry of online commentators have pointed to the appearance of around 50 melon-headed whales - a species that is a member of the dolphin family - on Japan's beaches six days prior to the monster quake, which unleashed a towering tsunami and triggered a nuclear disaster.

Scientists were on Saturday dissecting the bodies of the whales, 156 of which were found on two beaches on Japan's Pacific coast a day earlier, but could not say what caused the beachings.