Those particular events were in New Zealand.
Searching for mass whale strandings will turn up hundreds of photos taken across the world.
It’s not exactly a rare phenomena, and requires no divine intervention.
The way the carcasses are lined up in some of the shots, I could certainly see how that would make someone scratch their heads and wonder what was up. Do you know if they were moved by people after being found?
But the fact that these things are still occurring certainly takes a lost of the mystery out of the fossil finding.