Over 50 whales die after being stranded in Scotland

Only one pilot whale survived of the 55 that washed up on the Isle of Lewis in northwest Scotland on Sunday. It was the largest mass stranding in the region in more than a decade.

More than 50 pilot whales died on Sunday after stranding along a beach on the Isle of Lewis in northwest Scotland. It was Britain's biggest mass stranding since 2011, marine rescuers say.

Coastguard, police and salvage volunteers found 55 whales - adults and calves - washed up on the beach on Sunday morning, according to UK charity Divers Marine Life Rescue, which coordinated the response. By the time responders arrived on the beach to administer first aid to the surviving whales, the majority were already dead, the charity added. Around 3:30 p.m. Local time, rescue teams decided to euthanize the surviving animals "for welfare reasons", after determining that choppy waves and shallow beach conditions made refloating them unsafe.

Only one of 55 whales survived, a spokesman for Western Isles Council, the local government, said in an email. The whale was one of two that had been successfully brought back to sea. The other whale washed ashore and later died, British Divers Marine Life Rescue said. Pilot whales, which belong to the same family as dolphins and porpoises, can reach 24 feet in length and weigh up to 6,600 pounds. Once stranded, they can gradually crash or their blood circulation can be cut off, releasing toxins that poison the animal, say marine biologists.

"They were probably all in the same family, a unit traveling together for decades,” said Daren Grover, chief executive of Project Jonah New Zealand, a charity that responds to whale strandings in New Zealand.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Zoological Society of London's Cetacean Stranding Survey Program has recorded over 17,000 stranded cetaceans, referring to the class of animals that includes pilot whales , dolphins and porpoises, since its founding in 1990. Last fall, 230 pilot whales washed up on the west coast of Tasmania.

ImagePilot whales, which are highly social creatures, are the "most prone" species to stranding, according to the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme.Credit...Mairi Robertson-Carrey/British Divers Marine Life Rescue stranded in shallow water off Sutherland in Scotland. But a quick response successfully refloated 20 of the whales. This time the rescue efforts ran into "major hurdles" from the start, said Dan Jarvis, director of welfare and conservation at the rescue charity.

"They basically found one of the worst places to get stranded: on a secluded island on a secluded beach on a Sunday," he said. Lewis is only accessible by ferry or plane. The rescue charity was short of volunteers and equipment was scarce. With no cellphone signal within a two-mile radius of the beach, new communication channels had to be established. It was a large scale coordination effort of over 50 responders including volunteers, the Coast Guard, Police and Scottish Fire and Re...