Humpback stranding

Photo: Alistair Bertram

On Tuesday 15 October 2024 at around 3:30pm, British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) was alerted to a live stranded large whale off the coast of Southerness as the tide was receding at Southerness in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. 

The beach in this area is almost flat, meaning about two kilometres of sand and rocks are left completely dry at low tide. Initial photos showed the whale was situated quite far offshore making it difficult to identify the species and learn what condition the whale was in. However, members of the public reported they could hear the thuds of the whale thrashing its tail flukes, desperately trying to manoeuvre itself off the sand as the water around it dropped. 

An alert was sent to local Marine Mammal Medics to attend and assess the situation. Meanwhile a resident couple, very knowledgeable on the substrate in the area, safely walked out to the whale to collect more photos for us while we awaited the arrival of our Medics and the Coastguard. 

Their photos presented a humpback whale around 9m long. The whale was gulping (as if it were filter-feeding through its baleen plates) and flailing its tail in the air which propelled it deeper into the sand. The couple informed us that the incoming tide rushes in fairly quickly when it turns, so we were hopeful that the whale would only be stranded for a matter of hours before the water could hopefully refloat it without any intervention. 

The whale appeared to be in moderate condition, apart from the signs of stress it was showing, but as it began to tire it seemed to calm down and its breathing relaxed. By this time, the whale was drawing some attention from locals, but crowds were controlled as our Medics and the Coastguard arrived, allowing us to decide on the best course of action. 

Large baleen whales are notoriously difficult to respond to due to their sheer size and weight making them impossible to move safely, so all we could do was ensure the whale was as comfortable as possible with first aid provision. Fortunately the whale had stranded only a couple of hours before low tide, so did not have to wait long for the returning tide to wash over the area to refloat it when the water was deep enough. By then, the team retreated to the shore to safety as the light was also disappearing and became impossible to identify where the whale was, so we stood down and sent a Medic out at first light this morning (16 October) to see if our hopes had come true.

Thankfully, there was no sign of the whale along the coast or for about a mile offshore, however this doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t see it again. Medics will be monitoring the coastline over the coming days to check if it has restranded.

Humpback whale live strandings in the UK are very few and far between, with BDMLR having responded to only a handful. Previous strandings we’ve seen have usually involved the animal not fully beaching but grounding themselves in shallow water before being able to free themselves again.  

We’d like to extend a huge thanks to the HM Coastguard for their support and of course to our dedicated Marine Mammal Medics for responding to this incident. We hope the humpback recovers fully and was merely caught out by the huge tides in this region.