Stranded pilot whales prompt Highlands rescue operation

A group of pilot whales became stranded in a remote sea loch in Scotland, prompting a rescue mission. Photograph: Charlie Phillips/WDCS/PA

Fifteen pilot whales have died after a pod of 60 became stranded in a remote sea loch in the Highlands. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, which has sent a team to the area near the Kyle of Durness, said there is a chance that the pod is the same one that became stranded in the Outer Hebrides in May, leaving two whales dead.

Rescuers trying to save the whales said they had perished when they were stranded at low tide. Around 35 members of the pod beached as the water in the sea loch receded.

Twenty of them were refloated to deeper water using inflatable pontoons as the water returned, but the remainder had died, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue charity said. Many of the whales had been stranded on their sides, on top of each other and upside down and were breathing in sand.

A further 20 are thought to be in deeper water and not in imminent danger.

Local residents said the whales may have followed sand eels or salmon into the remote bay near Cape Wrath and had become stranded as the tide receded.

One man from a local B&B, who asked not to be identified, said there were six boats in the loch apparently trying to guide the whales towards a narrow channel where they could be kept until the tide rose again. A small number of them had already beached, he said.

"When the tide is out, it goes right back. The Kyle totally dries. It's just a huge expanse of sand … It's happening right in front of us. Two or three of them have beached. It's dreadful."

Danny Groves of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said the pod could be the same one involved in a stranding near South Uist in . In that incident, 60 of the mammals swam into a narrow and rocky sea loch on the island's coast prompting fears that dozens could be killed in a mass beaching. Two were found dead as the pod eventually left Loch Carnan, on the north-east corner of South Uist. A post-mortem examination carried out on one whale suggested it died of infection. Rescuers later said a second whale was found dead in the loch.

At the time, officials in Ireland were warned to watch out for a mass stranding on their shores. The previous year, 35 pilot whales that appeared to be in danger of beaching in Loch Carnan left South Uist intact but less than a week later, 33 of the pod were found dead on a deserted island off County Donegal.

"It could well be (the same pod)," said Groves. May: "That's the group mentality. The last time, back in May, we thought one or two may have been injured. They operate in a very social group. Rather than leave, the others would come in and follow the injured."

Groves said other possible reasons for stranding behaviour could be noise pollution from sonar or drilling. Until a whale died and a post-mortem was carried out, it was difficult to say what the cause might be, he added.

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