At least 65 pilot whales die in Scottish mass stranding

At least 65 long-finned pilot whales have died after being stranded on an island off the north coast of Scotland, a rescue charity said on Thursday (July 11), in one of the largest mass strandings in Britain in recent times, Reuters reports. Video footage from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue showed a few of the animals struggling to breathe in the shallow water while the lifeless bodies of others lay spread out on the sand. The location was confirmed by the beach layout seen in the videos which matched file and satellite imagery of the area. The date was verified by local reports of the mass whale stranding. The charity said it had been 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 get stranded on shore for a range of reasons, such as when they lose their way or get trapped by 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 gets into difficulties others often follow them, resulting in mass strandings. Almost a year ago a similar event involving pilot whales occurred on Lewis, another Scottish island located to the west of the mainland when at least 55 whales died or were euthanised.