Whale and dolphin strandings in Scotland have risen sharply over 30 years - study

The number of marine mammals stranded in Scotland has risen dramatically in the past 30 years, a study has found.

- Philip Hoare Jeroen Hoekendijk

From 1992 to 2022, 5,147 cetaceans died on Scottish shores, and a new paper shows huge increases in the rate of strandings of up to 800% in some species, continuing to rise exponentially each year.

The paper, by the University of Glasgow's Scottish marine animal stranding scheme (Smass), comes after this summer's series of rarely seen, deep-diving whale species stranding on northern European shores.

Over a period of two weeks, 36 beaked whales and pilot whales were found in locations in western and southern Ireland, Orkney, Norfolk, the Netherlands and southern Sweden. The animals appeared to have entered shallow seas where they could not forage for their usual foods such as deep-sea squid.

The widespread locations have provoked serious concern, especially among volunteer groups that work to save the stranded whales - without success, in all of the above cases.

"Clusters of beaked whales should raise suspicions," said Dr Andrew Brownlow, the director of Smass.