MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mass stranding event in Scottish island with the loss of 55 pilot whales

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue charity (BDMLR) said 55 of the animals washed up on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

A “mass stranding” event caused over 50 pilot whales to die on a remote Scottish island, Isle of Lewis, marine rescuers said on Sunday. The British Divers Marine Life Rescue charity (BDMLR) said 55 of the animals washed up on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

Police alerted the BDMLR to the beached pilot whales on Sunday morning. The responders came to administer first aid and managed to refloat two animals, but one of them became re-stranded and died, and only one of the whales got away safely.

”Unfortunately, none (apart from one that was refloated early on) survived the ordeal,“ the charity said in a later statement.

Despite their name, pilot whales belong to the same family as dolphins. They can grow up to six meters in length and weigh a metric ton. In their statement, BDMLR said it was ”currently suspected that the whole pod stranded due to one female giving birth.“

According to the rescuers, pilot whales are ”notorious for their strong social bonds, so often when one whale gets into difficulty and strands, the rest follow, leading to more of them stranding.”

Members of the Lewis community, Stornoway Coastguard, Stornoway and Shawbost Fire and Rescue, the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), the Scottish SPCA, and Civil Air Support were all involved in the rescue effort, with vets and marine experts being flown in to help.

SMASS will now carry out post mortem examinations of the bodies to conclude the cause of the stranding.

The BDMLR group was founded in 1988 and has 20 whale rescue pontoons at strategic locations across the UK to help stranded whales and dolphins.

Between 2011 and 2015, it responded to a series of mass pilot whale strandings in Scotland, including one incident that involved a pod of more than 70 pilot whales.