1. Injuries from collisions with boats, ships and other man-made aquatic machines.
2. Water pollution - Whales can become sick or poisoned due to pollutant chemicals such as gas and acid, and from the accumulation of daily waste created from everyday living.
3. Some biologists and scientists speculate that whales may become disoriented, sick and confused by the use of man-made sonar which may interfere with a whales brainwaves or use of echolocation causing the whale to lose its sense of direction and beach itself.
4. Just as humans suffer from sickness and natural diseases marine mammals may also be subject to natural diseases beyond their or our control.
5. Whales may beach themselves in an attempt to escape or find cover from shark attacks or attacks from other marine mammals such as the killer whale.
6. While it is more difficult to find adequate information regarding whales being poisoned by other aquatic species it is definitely possible that a whale could become poisoned and disoriented causing it to swim to shore.
7. Some biologists believe that abnormalities caused by changes in the earths magnetic field may interfere with a whales biological navigation causing it to lose its sense of direction
8. Just as humans get Pneumonia so do whales and there are recorded cases of whales swimming to shore as a result of catching Pneumonia.
9. While whales generally have a good sense of direction and are excellent swimmers there are some instances when a whale may collide with a large natural element, eg. a large rock, in its environment causing it to become injured and disoriented.
10. A common topic discussed today is global warming and its impact on the earth. Changes in the tides, melting icebergs and shifting food sources such as fish may force whales to relocate and wander off course causing them to swim into shallow waters or possibly even beach themselves.
11. In some cases a whale may end up beached because it has already died and ended up washing ashore.
12. Whales are very social creatures often travel in large pods or groups. In rare instances some pods or groups may unknowingly follow a sick or disoriented whale towards shallow waters and/or beaches where they can possibly get stuck in shallow water or end up beaching themselves.
As stated earlier some of these theories are difficult to prove on a large-scale, however they are worth noting because each concept posses a possibility as to why whales beach themselves and is important for finding possible solutions to this problem, especially those that may be caused by the contribution of humans. Below is a short video of a sperm whale stranded on a Norfolk beach on 4 Feb 2016.