Tuesday 3 January 2012

Beached Whale at Sanna

'Kilchoan Early Bird' has just sent in these photographs of a whale washed up on one of the beaches at Sanna. The whale is about 5m long, and 'KEB' reckons that it's been dead for three weeks, so it's not in a pretty condition.

The bulbous head and gaps where the teeth used to be suggest it's a Pilot Whale. The species which is most common in North Atlantic waters is the long-finned Pilot Whale Globicephala melas. What with the finding of the trigger fish (post here), this has been an exciting week along the Sanna beaches.

More about Pilot Whales here.

3 comments:

  1. I now understand that the whale has been on the beach for two weeks or more.

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  2. How often do they do this and why ???

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  3. From what I've read, little is understood about why whales beach, though there are suggestions that human activity, such as the use of sonar by naval ships, could be a contributary factor. However, for this one it might be quite simply that he/she was old.

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