Sad end for whale at Kintail

Pilot whale washed up on Trust beach

The excitement spurred by the appearance of a whale unusually far up Loch Duich ended in sadness recently, when it was found dead on the shores of the Trust’s Kintail Estate.

The young Long-finned Pilot Whale (Globicephala melaena), which measured just under 5 metres in length, had delighted onlookers over several days in late January before reported sightings ceased. The hope was that it had found its own way back to its normal open sea habitat. However, it seems that the poor creature’s fate was sealed once it had ventured so far from this up the sea loch, and especially without other members of its pod: typically 10-50 individuals.

Specialists from the Scottish Agricultural College, who analysed and then disposed of its corpse, believe the whale slowly starved in the absence of its usual deep sea squid prey. Lost and disorientated, it then ventured into the shallow waters behind the Morvich causeway. From there it stood little chance of survival and was found beached on the mudflats, already dead, on the morning of 6 February.