Efforts to rescue the last surviving whales of a group of about fifty mammals and their young that washed up on a beach on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland in the morning were in vain on Sunday.
“A sad result for this capsule and obviously not the result we were all hoping for,” Britain’s Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said in a statement on Monday, according to The Independent.
At around 7.40am on Sunday morning, Coastguard rescue teams were called from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland to a beach where 55 whales and their calves had washed ashore.
Also dubbed “pilot whales” because of their tendency to follow ships, these pilot whales are a species “known for their strong social bonds, to the point where if a whale gets into trouble, they run aground.” , the others follow him,” he continued organization in a press release.
Unfortunately, despite the hard work of the rescue services trying to release a few whales from the two weeks that were still showing signs of life, none could be rescued due to the rough waves and shallow beach, making their return to the water too dangerous for the rescuers .
“Given the length of time the pilot whales have been out of the water and the poor conditions, it was decided that they should be euthanized for animal welfare reasons,” the BDMLR said, according to the UK source.
Should the reasons for this sad spectacle remain a mystery to authorities, a preliminary hypothesis suggests that the group was following a woman who was just giving birth before she ran aground.