Marine

Marine Scotland assists with the whale strandings on Skye

June 5, 2015 by Marine Scotland Communications No Comments | Category Compliance, Marine Directorate general

Volunteers keeping the whales wet until high tide

Our colleagues in Marine Scotland Compliance may not be an emergency service but they will always help out when they can, whether it’s doing search, rescue or, in the case of the stranded pilot whales on the Isle of Skye this week, sending officers trained in marine life rescue to help on the ground.

Officers from the Marine Protection Vessel (MPV) Hirta were monitoring the position at sea, whilst others from our offices in Portree, Ullapool and Campbeltown all joined in to help.

The Commanding Officer of the Hirta, Mark Lockwood, explains what it was like from ship side:

“At 0530 we received a call from Ali Jack at  British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) advising of that 21 pilot whales were stranded in Staffin Bay. We were on our way towards Ullapool at the time, but  immediately diverted and made for Staffin Bay to assist.

We arrived at 0730 but no contact was possible with the shore team because of a poor phone signal, but we could see through binoculars that four people were located on the shore treating a stranded whale (later identified as a mother with calf).  I decided to send a four-man team to the shore by RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat), led by First Officer Gary Adamson.

Just after that I received a call from Stephanie, who was with a mother & calf, who reported that they had lost sight of the other 19 whales, so I tasked the RIB to find them. They began searching and just before 0800, they located some of the whales stranded between Staffin Island and the headland.

Heading back to MPV Hirta

During this time the Hirta was in contact with other Marine Scotland colleagues in Edinburgh to try to organise assistance from trained fishery office colleagues local to Staffin Island (Portree and Ullapool).

Just after 8am, two of the Hirta crew transferred from RIB to shore to assist the divers with the mother who was calving. Sadly, she had to be euthanized due to a breech birth situation.

Half an hour later, a further nine whales were sighted on Staffin  island and  although the whales were being freed by the teams, they kept swimming back to the shore to find the ones still stranded by low tide. We were advised that this is natural behaviour, as the pod will stay together in any situation.

At 1000, the RIB was relaunched with additional people on-board  and supplies of hot drinks for all the divers and volunteers currently at work.

Mid-morning, the Hirta received a call from the shore team requesting equipment to keep whales wet. The Hirta crew collected buckets and spare bed sheets from around the vessel so the whales could be wrapped in them. Supplies were taken to the teams on the shore too and they were working over a difficult terrain –  many of them were in the water either with whales, or stuck in rocks with the stranded mammals.

At noon, we were told that our assistance would be appreciated until attempts could be made to refloat the remaining whales at High Water (2000) and for the remainder of the afternoon we launched the RIB multiple times to take crew to and from the incident. Some of the crew at this time were returning out to Staffin Island for the second time that day and all the time, we still had to bear in mind that the Hirta crew needed sufficient resting periods because they had carried out navigation watches through the previous night, and would continue to do so the following night, after the incident ended.

It was difficult to keep an exact count from one end of the island to the other of how many people were involved but I think that it  was about 50 – nine of whom were from Marine Scotland.

By just after 2000, it was confirmed that all seven whales were successfully out of danger and the teams on Staffin Island started the clean-up operations. The Hirta RIB crew started running the teams from the Island back to Staffin Bay and by 2130, Staffin Island was confirmed clear of all personnel.”

Geoff Pringle, the Senior Fishery Officer from our Ullapool office and another one of the volunteers explained:

“We received a call at 1230 on  Tuesday (2nd June) asking for assistance with the stranding. I headed for Skye to help out,  along with three other colleagues.

I made a quick call to the Commanding Officer of the MPV Hirta, Mark Lockwood, to be brought up to speed, to request dry suits and equipment  and to arrange for their rigid inflatable boat (RIB) to meet us on arrival at Staffin slipway. I also spoke to another colleague from our Portee office who was already at Staffin to let her know that we were on our way.

We arrived and all regrouped at Staffin slipway at 1600 where we got changed in to dry suits and were transferred onto Staffin Island by RIB.

As you can imagine the site was fairly chaotic with over 40 people on the island, split between the two stranding sites and co-ordination of the rescue was fluid. I spoke with the MPV Hirta crew and BDMLR medic Noel Hawkins, who I know personally as he is based in Ullapool, to offer our help and also to get a handle on what would be required in the next few hours.

High tide was due around 20:00 so it was basically a waiting game before an attempt to re-float the animals could take place. During this time I assisted Noel and the other BDMLR volunteers keeping the whales wet using towels, buckets and also watering cans – slightly surreal to say the least! A GPS tag was also fitted to the largest animal, during which I assisted by handing equipment back and forth.

Ashley, from our Portree office, was also actively involved in the water to such an extent that her lifejacket went off which provided some well needed light entertainment during the incident!

Refloating one of the stranded whales

Once the tide was full it was all hands to the pump as the six remaining animals all had to be floated off at the same time and held in the water until they had sufficiently recovered.

Once released, attempts were made to stop the animals coming back ashore by co-ordinated splashing and running the MPV Hirta RIB between the animals and the shore. It was fantastic to see all four of the animals that our group were involved with heading past the north end of the island and back into the open sea.

Once the rescue was completed, we assisted with the evacuation of the island by carrying equipment back to the disembarkation point.

All in all, it was a very humbling experience to witness first hand, with so many people working so hard for upwards of 36 hours to achieve such a positive outcome. And after a lift back to Ullapool on the MPV Hirta, I went straight back to my rather more mundane daily work.”

Thanks to the effort of a number of people and organisations who helped out, it was confirmed that between the previous night’s refloating attempts and the attempts from that day, 14 whales out of 21 were saved. Strandings of this size thankfully don’t occur very often but when they do, Marine Scotland are happy to play a part to help out.

We have a number of staff who have undertaken specific training with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) to make sure they are ready and capable of assisting in these types of operation. The training involves lectures on cetacean identification, first aid and medical care for cetaceans, large whale disentanglement, and information on the equipment and methods used to release stranded mammals. For those working on our vessels, they are given training on how the MPVs and RIBs can best assist in similar incidents in the future. Unlike the 2 ton ‘Training Whale” that’s used during the course, colleagues got to handle the real thing this week.

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