A family of long-finned pilot whales beached themselves and died – all to try to support a sick female member of their pod.
The analysis of the stranding, which occurred three years ago on a Scottish beach, is the subject of a new report on the heartbreaking tragedy.
Mainers will relate to the sad, upsetting tale since these whales are very common in, and indigenous to, the Gulf Of Maine.
The whales, a regular, native species in this region, are commonly sighted from spring through fall, particularly between Cape Cod Bay and the Bay of Fundy, where they feed in large family groups or pods.
They are large, highly-social dolphins commonly found in the Gulf of Maine from late spring through autumn.
After moving into the area in late spring to feed they later depart for warmer, offshore waters to winter.
In the Scottish case, marine biologists concluded that 55 pilot whales – out of loyalty – followed a female member of their pod having a difficult pregnancy.
The pregnant whale swam into shallow water, possibly in an attempt to signal her distress to other members of her pod.
The mass stranding and death of 55 whales on the Isle of Lewis in 2023 was caused by the mammals’ loyalty to their pod, a report has concluded, the Guardian.com reports.
It had been thought that the unusually large incident on Tràigh Mhòr beach, Tolsta, could have been caused by trauma, disease or acoustic disturbance from military or industrially-generated noise.
But the report from the Scottish government suggests the long-finned pilot whales, a highly social species, died because the group had been following the female in the throes of a difficult birth.
The whales had been in good health before the stranding, the report said, but they appeared to move into shallow water, following “a single compromised female.”
A postmortem exam showed the female dolphin had been experiencing a prolonged and difficult birth, which acted as a trigger for the pod’s fatal move into the shallow bay.
The whales were seen milling near to the shore before they were stranded.
Such behavior – in which a pod comes together to support a sick or injured member – can be crucial to survival offshore as a means of fending off predators, said Andrew Brownlow, lead scientist of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme.
“If a member of the pod was in distress, this species’ well-documented social cohesion would have led others to aggregate closely in a protective response,” Brownlow said.
Scientists were forced to euthanize the entire pod, its members near death after the stranding.
