The whale was discovered on Firemore Beach, north of Gairloch, on by a hillwalker who spotted the creature on the shore. A rescue attempt was launched but the whale sadly died
A pilot whale has died after becoming stranded on a beach – despite a successful rescue attempt.
The whale was discovered on Firemore Beach, north of Gairloch in the Scottish Highlands, on May 4 by a hillwalker who spotted the creature on the shore. Donna Hopton, Wester Ross coordinator medic for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) was notified, and began recruiting local boat owners to help rescue the whale.
“Initially, it live stranded a couple of miles along from Slaggan Bay,” said Donna. “I put a call out to my medics and we went to organise boats. It’s a four hour walk to where the whale was, so we had to get to it by sea.” As the team approached the whale, the tide had risen enough to allow the animal to enter the water – but instead of swimming out to sea, it began heading towards the mouth of Loch Ewe.
“When we actually got to it, it had managed to free itself as the tide was rising,” Donna said. “It must have been there for at least six or seven hours, possibly longer. It struggled to begin with but then picked up the pace and seemed to swim okay. Once it had picked up its pace and started to head to deeper water, we thought it was going to be okay.
“We watched it swimming around the mouth of the loch, and then it started heading back to the island again and we lost sight of it. We hadn’t seen it for about 40 minutes, so we figured it had either gone deeper towards the end of the loch or back out towards sea. It was getting quite late, so we decided to go home. As I was driving back, I kept stopping by the loch at the passing places and having a look with my binoculars.”
Sadly, Donna spotted the whale, which had washed back up on the shore of Finemore Beach. It was alive, but only just – and by the time Donna reached it, the whale had sadly died. “I spotted it by the shoreline. It was still alive its tail was thrashing in the surf, and it was clearly stuck. By the time I got parked up and got down to it, there were no signs of life. It had definitely passed away, which was really sad. It had clear damage on it from where it had been on the rocks lots of gashes and scuffs.”
Donna and fellow medics Nic and Nicky Butler contacted the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), who arranged to pick the carcass up for an autopsy. Local farmer Hamish MacDonald brought his forklift to assist the team with loading the whale onto the SMASS trailer.
The autopsy revealed that the whale had been an older male, 5.33m in length and weighing just 1045kg – around 700kg lighter than the expected weight for its size. Despite the tragic ending for the whale, Donna and her team are grateful for the help received from the community.
“We’re very grateful from all the help we got from non-medics, without whom, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything,” she said. “If a member of the public finds a stranded whale, the first thing they need to do is stay well back. They should contact British Divers and Marine Life Rescue if they think it’s alive.”