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Dozens of pilot whales die on beach off Scotland – DW – 07/12/2024

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Dozens of pilot whales die on beach off Scotland – DW – 07/12/2024

Seventy-seven long-finned pilot whales washed ashore on Thursday on Sanday island, a part of the Orkney archipelago off Scotland. 

Sixty-five of them were already dead, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) service said, and the 12 still alive were in too poor a condition to recover. 

“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 BDMLR said in an update.

It said lying on the beach for a long time likely led to “crush injury from their own weight and the high likelihood that they have inhaled water with the incoming tide.” 

The charity said the whales had sunk deeper into the sand as the tide washed over them and were unable to refloat themselves.

No ‘obvious indications’ for why they were stranded

The Orkney Islands are an archipelago situated just off the northeastern tip of mainland Scotland. Sanday is to the northeast of the group of islands, nearer the open waters.

“There are no obvious indications as to why they all stranded,” the BDMLR said, adding that it would try to recover and conduct postmortem examinations on as many as possible. 

Such mass strandings are not uncommon among pilot whales, who tend to travel in tightly-knit groups, but scientists are still trying to ascertain why the phenomenon occurs. 

“This is definitely one of the larger mass strandings, but not necessarily the largest,” the BDMLR told the AFP news agency. 

In 2023, about 55 pilot whales were stranded on the island of Lewis, off Scotland’s northwest coast. 

Larger mass strandings involving the whales are also quite common around Australia and New Zealand. 

What happens to beached whales?

Every year thousands of whales are found stranded on beaches all over the world. But how do they get there? And what happens once they hit the shore?

Image: picture-alliance/Pacific Press/A. H. Firsawan

Earlier this month, locals in Aceh, Indonesia, teamed up to try and help 10 sperm whales that beached themselves in shallow waters. Volunteers managed to pull six of the animals back out to sea, but four died. There is no real consensus on why whales become stranded, but there are plenty of ideas…

Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Yani

Some whale species live in social groups known as ‘pods’, each of which has a leader the other animals swim behind. If the lead animal finds itself close to the shore and in trouble, it can send out a distress signal. The whales following behind may try to help and end up stranded themselves. There is also the possibility that whales become caught while chasing prey.

Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/R. Azhari

Another school of thought on why whales become beached suggests that overfishing forces the marine mammals to seek food in unfamiliar and potentially shallow waters where they become trapped. There is also some evidence that naval sonar can disrupt and confuse the animals while migrating.

Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/R. Azhari

If a whale perishes deep in the murky depths of the sea, its body sinks to the bottom providing nourishment for a plethora of other animals and organisms for years, even decades to come. But those already close to the shore, may wash up on the beach, like this whale that appeared in Rio de Janeiro. If this happens, the animals decompose on the sand – a phenomenon that can cause other problems.

Image: picture-alliance/AA/F. Teixeira

Though these sunbathers appear undeterred, the stench of a putrifying whale carcass would be enough to put many off their holiday. And the smell is not the only issue. When one of these ocean giants dies and begins to decompose, gases build up in its stomach where they are trapped by a thick layer of blubber. If humans climb on, or try to move the dead whale, it can explode.

Image: Getty Images/M. Tama

Disposing of a whale that has washed ashore can be a difficult task. Because they can pose a risk to public health, leaving them to rot on the beach is not an option. The best way, say some environmentalists, is to bury them on the beach itself, as was the case with the four whales that died in Aceh.

Image: picture-alliance/Pacific Press/A. H. Firsawan

msh/lo (AFP, dpa)

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