Pilot whale dies after getting stranded on Highland beach

A PILOT whale which became stranded on a Scottish beach has reportedly died.

A hillwalker first spotted the whale on the rocks north of Slaggan Ruinen, Wester Ross.

Donna Suzanne Hopton, a medic from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue was called to the scene and enlisted the help of local boat owners to reach the whale.

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She told the paper: “With the help from local boat owners from Loch Ewe and the Summer Isles, my medics and I managed to get round the whale by sea.

“Just as we arrived it managed to free itself and began to swim.

“Initially it was struggling, but soon took off at speed and appeared to be ok. We all went back to Aultbea harbour – but it soon appeared that all was not well.”

The whale was spotted at the mouth of Loch Ewe around 30 minutes later and Hopton and her team kept an eye on the animal for the next few hours.

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She added: “After losing sight of it in the loch for 40 minutes my fellow medics and I decided to go home. We stopped at regular intervals to do a sweep with the binoculars, and that’s when I spotted it on the shores of Firemore Beach.

“It was thrashing its tail in the surf, but by the time I got down to the water’s edge, it had sadly died.”

Hopton managed to secure the whale so it did not wash away in the high tide, then on Sunday morning she returned to keep watch until the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme arrived to take the whale away for autopsy.