News / ‘Sad day’ as two dolphins strand on Yell
HILLSWICK Wildlife Sanctuary said yesterday (Thursday) had been a “sad day” after two white-sided dolphins stranded on Yell and died.
The pair had been seen circling close to the shore at Basta Voe on Wednesday, with the sanctuary saying it appeared that one was trying to support the other when it kept tipping on its side.
With the sanctuary preparing a rescue attempt, the two dolphins were then found lying immobile on their side in the water.
At this point the rescue “turned into a retrieval operation”, the sanctuary said in a social media post.
“As a team of volunteers gathered during the morning, we managed to wade into the water and haul the two dolphins across the voe,” it said.
“We were able to drag them onto the bank to take measurements and examine them to see if they had been entangled, which appeared not to be the case.
“Finally the team of around 10 folk were able to lift them onto a trailer and drive them to Lerwick where they were loaded into a crate and onto the ferry.”
The two dolphins are now on their way to Inverness where they will undergo a postmortem from scientists at the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme (SMASS).
The sanctuary said this was not the first stranding at Basta Voe, adding it used to be an inlet where pilot whales would be herded in previous decades for their flesh and oil.
“Eight years ago the SMASS team came up to carry out a postmortem on a pilot whale that had stranded in the voe having been escorted in by a small pod of white-sided dolphins,” it said.
“Only one week earlier the same whale, which was found to have a form of meningitis, had been successfully rescued from stranding in Vidlin.
“A few years earlier there was a mass stranding of around seven white-sided dolphins in Weisdale Voe, where attempts to refloat two survivors were unsuccessful.”
The sanctuary said it was “always difficult to see these stunning creatures in this state”.
But it added it “always feels like an enormous privilege to be able to work with them and do what we can to help gain a greater understanding of their lives and the challenges they face in the modern marine environment”.
It also thanked everyone involved in retrieving the two dolphins from the water.
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