At least 65 long-finned pilot whales have died after becoming stranded on an island off the north coast of Scotland, a non-governmental rescue charity said on Thursday (11), in one of the biggest mass strandings in Britain in recent times.
Video footage from British Divers Marine Life Rescue showed some of the animals struggling to breathe in the shallow waters, while the lifeless bodies of others were strewn across the sand.
The location was confirmed by the outline of the beach seen in the videos, which matched archival and satellite imagery of the area. The date was verified by local reports of mass whale strandings.
The charity said it was alerted to the stranding earlier in the day and sent medics to a beach on Sanday, a Scottish island in the Orkney archipelago, where they found 77 whales, of which only 12 were still alive.
Whales can become stranded on shore for a number of reasons, such as getting lost or trapped in tides, but scientists say there is no single, definitive reason behind the phenomenon, which has been recorded throughout history.
Pilot whales in particular have close social bonds, and when one member of a pod finds itself in trouble, others often follow suit, resulting in mass strandings.
Almost a year ago, a similar event involving pilot whales occurred on Lewis, another Scottish island located west of the mainland, when at least 55 whales died or were euthanized.
Source: CNN Brasil
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