This week, a mass stranding of long-finned pilot whales happened off the northeast coast of Scotland. Sadly, twelve whales that initially survived had to be euthanized. The British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) found a total of 77 whales washed ashore on Sanday Island in Scotland’s Orkney archipelago on Thursday. Unfortunately, 65 of them were already dead. In a statement released on Thursday, the BDMLR said, “Sadly, the remaining 12 pilot whales have been euthanized due to their condition deteriorating from the many hours they have spent stranded on the beach.”
The whales had been on the beach for a long time, causing “crush injury from their own weight and the high likelihood that they have inhaled water with the incoming tide.” Additionally, they had sunk deeper into the sand when the tide washed over them, making it impossible for them to refloat themselves. When the BDMLR found the whales after receiving a report early on Thursday, they had already been stranded for several hours. The charity added that there were no obvious signs of why they stranded and that they would try to recover as many of the whales as possible for post-mortem examinations. Mass strandings like this are not uncommon among pilot whales, which tend to travel in closely-knit groups. BDMLR rescue and community coordinator Molly Brown told Reuters, “Pilot whales are a really social species. They really rely on their family bonds. So, it might have been that just one of them got into difficulty and the rest of the pod just stranded with it because they stick together. In moments of need, they never leave each other’s side.”
“This is definitely one of the larger mass strandings but not necessarily the largest,” BDMLR told AFP. Last year, 55 pilot whales washed ashore on the island of Lewis, off northwest Scotland. Even larger strandings have occurred in other parts of the world, especially in New Zealand and Australia.
Investigations and Efforts
The BDMLR plans to investigate why this tragic event happened through post-mortem examinations of the whales. This incident highlights the strong social bonds of pilot whales and the potential risks they face when one member of their group encounters trouble.
Source: CBS News
