Skip to content
Long-finned pilot whales © Nicola Hodgins/WDC

Unusual activity witnessed before pilot whale stranding

Long-finned pilot whale

Unusual activity witnessed before pilot whale stranding

Just days after a pod of long-finned pilot whales stranded on an island in the Hebrides in Scotland, another stranding event involving the same species occurred on the other side of the world in Western Australia. Around 100 whales stranded on a remote stretch of coastline over 450km south east of Perth. There are various…

Read More

Nearly 500 whales die in New Zealand

The number of pilot whales that have died following a mass stranding in New Zealand has reached nearly 500. Officials are putting the current number of deaths at 477, which occurred on two remote beaches on the Chatham Islands, around 500 miles east of New Zealand’s main islands. The remote location hindered attempts to refloat…

Read More

Military help out in New Zealand stranded orca rescue

Military personnel helped successfully rescue a stranded juvenile orca from a beach in Marlborough on the South Island on Sunday. They were in the area taking part in training exercises involving representatives from New Zealand, Canada, the USA and Australia.  Volunteers from Project Jonah, New Zealand’s strandings NGO and the country’s Department of Conservation coordinated the…

Read More

Dolphin spotted swimming through London dies

A dolphin that had been spotted over a number of days swimming in the Thames, London has sadly died. Initial tests by the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme for the Zoological Society of London show that the common dolphin had very little food in its stomach and was probably quite old, and may have also become…

Read More

Unexpected Guests: Pilot Whales in the Moray Firth

From WDC information officer, Sam Flood. Long-finned Pilot Whales are curious cetaceans. They are known for their peculiar, bulbous heads and, as the name suggests, elongated fins. Living in close-knit groups, they can often be seen clustered together – almost on top of each other, jostling for position and yet appearing to huddle for comfort…

Read More