15 Pilot Whales Come Ashore

Fifteen pilot whales have come ashore at Kyle of Durness on the north Highland coast, according to British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR). The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has also been notified of the incident.

The BDMLR said it had received a report of 15 animals out of the water and another 20 still at sea. In May, two pilot whales were found dead in a Hebridean loch after experts feared more than 60 of the animals had been at risk of becoming beached.

The pod had got into difficulty in Loch Carnan in South Uist. Charlie Phillips, a Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) field officer, said the area where the whales had come ashore was remote.
Mr Phillips told the BBC News Scotland website: "It is going to be tricky. "It is a remote and difficult place to get to. The nearest place is Thurso."

Mr Phillips added: "The whales may have come in from the Pentland Firth, following prey or trying to find somewhere to rest." He said a young female pilot whale was found at Scourie, in Sutherland, a few weeks ago.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Breaks my heart every time this happens, and it's becoming more and more frequent

reply to post by Ramcheck


hi Ramcheck, + thanks for that...

the first thing i always think of when this happens is...

"what are the navy / etc TESTING under the ocean now?"

we make way too much "NOISE" in the oceans,
and i am not surprised we actually harm some animal life
with our various "radio-frequency weapons"...

IMHO

seeya

ps... s + f

reply to post by Ramcheck


Classic pre-seismic indicator, so it's over to the earthquake experts.......

Isn't this the second such episode in the last six weeks?

Rainbows
Jane

Originally posted by angelchemuel
Isn't this the second such episode in the last six weeks?

Rainbows
Jane

Yes at the end of May there was a pod of around 60 in trouble but most of them were chased from the shore by volunteers. 33 died on the shore at Donegal prior to that though.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Just to update, these 15 creatures have died.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Fifteen whales have died and many others have become stranded at Kyle of Durness, on the north Highland coast.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said the whales were believed to be from a pod of as many as 60.

The long-finned pilot whales may have been hunting prey or had sought a place to rest. Rescuers trying to save the pod said the whales had perished when they stranded at low tide.

About 35 beached as the water in the sea loch receded. Some 20 of them were refloated to deeper water using inflatable pontoons as the water returned, but the remainder had died, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) charity said.

'Narrow channel'

It said many of the whales had stranded on their sides, on top of each other and upside down and were breathing in sand. A further 20 are thought to be in deeper water and not in imminent danger.

Human error is to blame for these deaths.

Originally posted by shaneR
reply to post by Ramcheck

 

the first thing i always think of when this happens is...

"what are the navy / etc TESTING under the ocean now?"

Cape Wrath is not far from Durness, maybe 10 - 15 miles. If you look at the link you can see the kind of thing the navy does in that area.

I've had the pleasure of seeing / hearing some of the stuff that goes on up there whilst on holiday on the Isle of Skye; fighter jets screaming across an otherwise quiet sky, various boats / ships trundling down through the Sound of Sleat when their war games or whatever the heck they were up to finished.

Sad day all round when so many wonderful creatures are dying.