Question: Why did animals have to die in the great flood?

Ballard believes (or believed) that the flood story is a distorted recollection of the flooding of the Black Sea. Doubtless some animals died, perhaps many if the flooding was catastrophic (that is uncertain)From your images you will see a lot of images of Heracleion and nearby cities in Egypt which sank in historic times and a lot of natural formations which resemble buildings. And none of them have any connection to the Black Sea Flood, or indicate that there was a flood which covered the entire world.You might note that the Black Sea and the various other sites are all still underwater, so they can hardly show flooding at sites currently above sea level.

"compellingtruth.org" doesn't really seem to be making much of a case.The present version of Genesis may well be more recent than the "complete" version of the story they call Akkadian. And the existence of older fragments surely proves that that story is far older than the oldest surviving complete version. I am sure that they would not date any book of the Bible - or any story in it - in that way!And how can they possibly conclude that the "most likely" source is an actual global flood ? Certainly not on the evidence given.