Only 15 of the 55 individuals in the pod were still alive when they were discovered early on Sunday morning, according to British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), which responded to the report of the stranding on Sunday.
Dan Jarvis, the director of welfare for BDMLR, stated that many of the animals had already been discovered dead, suggesting that they had become stranded overnight.
He revealed to CNN on Monday that whales can only endure on land for around six hours before they start to deteriorate.
Since they live in a marine environment where they are basically weightless, their skeletal structure no longer needs to support their own weight, according to Jarvis, who spoke to CNN. “They have lost the ability to support their own weight when they’re out of water.”
According to him, as soon as the marine animals start to expand, they begin to “crush themselves under their own weight,” which can cut off circulation and cause a buildup of toxins that can be lethal.
Two of the more active whales were attempted to be refloated, but only one was successful in being freed; the other re-stranded and eventually perished.
Around 3:30 p.m. (10.30 a.m. ET), officials decided that it was “too unsafe to refloat the remaining animals” due to the “shallow beach and rough wave conditions,” according to a statement from BDMLR. The remaining whales had been out of the water for hours.
According to SMASS, it may be the “largest fatal mass stranding event we’ve had in Scotland for decades.”
What causes strandings?
Pilot whales, which are renowned for their gregariousness, develop “extremely strong social and emotional bonds with one another,” Jarvis told CNN. The remainder of the group, or at least some of them, will follow an animal who is having trouble and become stuck if that animal goes lost.
Experts speculate that the entire pod becoming stranded may have been the cause of one of the dead whales’ apparent vaginal prolapse.
In order to learn more about the whales’ health and potential causes of stranding, the SMASS announced on social media that it will be “conducting sampling and necropsies” of them.
Although specialists are still looking into why whale strandings are increasing in the UK.
“We don’t know for sure why that would be, whether it’s a change in the population’s range and distribution. Perhaps it’s climate change-related, and they’re being pushed farther from other areas they used to inhabit and toward the food, or away from those areas, and they’re exploring new areas,” Jarvis said.
In an email to CNN on Monday, Peter Evans, a seasoned expert on marine mammals and the director of the UK-based Sea Watch Foundation, said that while overall whale strandings aren’t increasing, they might be for some species.
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