Whale food chain. They have large reserves of blubber, more so for toothed whales as they are higher up the food chain than baleen whales. Lactating mothers can pass the toxins on to their young. These pollutants can cause gastrointestinal cancers and greater vulnerability to infectious diseases. They can also be poisoned by swallowing litter, such as plastic bags. Advanced military sonar harms whales. Sonar interferes with the basic biological functions of whales—such as feeding and mating—by impacting their ability to echolocate. Whales swim in response to sonar and sometimes experience decompression sickness due to rapid changes in depth. Mass strandings
Rough-toothed dolphin as few as two to as many as ninety. Such groups are thought to be temporary assemblages, composed of smaller, more permanent groups of two to eight closely related individuals that occasionally join together with others. They have also been reported to school together with other species of dolphin, and with pilot whales, false killer whales, and humpback whales. Rough-toothed dolphins have been reported to bow-ride on a number of occasions, although apparently they do not do so as frequently as many other dolphin species. They do, however, commonly "skim", by swimming with their heads and chin above the surface