As experts ponder how to dispose of a beached sperm whale, Susy Macaulay discoversthat there are limits to what rescuers can do for these huge creatures of the deep
Doomed rescue
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Conservationists could only watch helplessly as the giant of the ocean they had been monitoring anxiously for two days died before their eyes on the shores of the Moray Firth.
Its own weight crushed its internal organs during an agonising five hours for the 40ft mammal and the teams who had been trying to save it.
It had beached itself at Alturlie, near Inverness, and Sarah Dolman, policy head for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society’s (WDCS), said that it was simply too big for a refloating attempt to be made.
Humanely destroying it would have been impossible because of the amount of drugs that would have been needed.
Shooting the animal was also ruled out because of the thickness of its skull.
An attempt will be made today to haul the whale closer to the shore so that a specialist disposal company can use a crane to load it on to a truck container for landfill burial near Airdire.
Miss Dolman said: “Scotland has an amazing stranding network and the WDCS are a key part of that along with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue.
“We were liaising all day on Monday to see how best we could help this animal.
“In the first instance we went out with experts from Aberdeen University to look at the animal and take photos.
“Those photos were circulated to other experts and you could see that the animal had not fed for a long time and was very skinny and unwell.”
She said that boats were kept away on Monday to reduce the stress on the whale, with the hope that it would swim out to open water.
“We consulted on how to deal with it. We could leave it alone and monitor it or get boats and try to push it out to sea.
“We considered that with the poor condition of the whale, if we tried with the boats, it would be 50-50, it could cause it stress and it could strand earlier.
“We decided to monitor it for the rest of the day and thought it would strand of its own accord.”
When the whale did finally beach, there was no possibility of refloating it because no equipment exists to cope with a whale of its size.
“If it had been smaller and healthier, we would have tried to,” said Miss Dolman. “The best and safest thing to do was to monitor it, and unfortunately it may seem cruel.”
WDCS director of science Mark Simmonds said: “There was nothing more that could be done. A whale in an unusual situation like this – very far away from its natural habitat – and such a large animal, is not a candidate for refloating.
“Rescue experts monitored the animal and it became apparent very quickly that it was ill. It was floating on its side.
“In many cases, euthanasia can be applied but this was simply not a possibility with a such a huge animal.”
Mr Simmonds added that shooting the animal was ruled out because of lack of a suitable firearm to pierce the whale's extremely dense and thick skull and ensure a clean death.
He said: “In New Zealand where whale strandings are quite common, a specialised weapon resembling a bazooka (rocket launcher) has been developed over years for the purpose. But in the whole of Europe there is no humane device available.”
Other disposal options for the whale’s body are being considered by Highland Council.
Local authority environmental health manager John Lee said the preferred option was by crane and truck.
The second option would be to tow it across the firth to better access, such as Nigg, and go through the same procedure.
The third, and least preferred option, would be to bury the animal on site.
Waste management specialist Oran of Alloa is involved in the operation, and speed is essential before the carcass decomposes and possibly explodes because of the gasses which will build up inside.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has approved the council’s options.
Scottish Agricultural College’s (SAC) strandings co-ordinator, biologist Bob Reid, was on standby last night for news of the disposal. He hopes to take samples from the body to determine why it came inshore.
He said: “Yesterday would have been the ideal time to get samples, as by the second or third day they are very badly decomposed.
“But we have always been of the impression that we should not open the body on site because it makes such a mess.”
Mr Reid said if the whale was put into a container, he hoped to take samples in the container, or at the landfill site.
He said: “I would be looking to take samples of the teeth, skin and blubber, at the very least.”
A steady trickle of sightseers continued to make their way to Alturlie to view the body all day yesterday.
Police continued to restrict access to the site, meaning most had to walk nearly a mile to get close to the scene.
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