Whale strandings are one of the most devastating phenomena of the marine world, and another mass stranding recently took dozens of lives in Scotland. One of the biggest mass strandings in decades took place on a beach in Orkney, where a pod of 77 pilot whales died after washing ashore.
Experts in whale strandings flocked to the Tresness Beach on the island of Sanday, after 77 pilot whales washed ashore, ranging from adult males to calves and juveniles. Despite the fact that whale strandings usually end in tragedy, they hoped things would be different this time around.
They established that 12 whales were still alive, but all refloating efforts eventually failed and they had to be euthanized. Experts immediately started looking for causes of this mass stranding, but they ruled out the illness because there were signs that the whales were recently fed.
Andrew Brownlow of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme said that the mass standings in Scotland are a cause for concern because they’ve been growing in numbers in recent years.
“It used to be quite unusual to have a mass stranding event, certainly of this size… [It’s] slightly concerning and that might be because there are just more animals out there, or it could be that there are more hazards that these animals are exposed to,” he told BBC News.
Scientists are still looking for a clear cause behind whale strandings, with water temperature changes, mid-frequency active sonar, and social cohesion of whale pods being cited as some of the possible explanations.
