Thirty-five whales have been found dead on a beach on Rutland Island in Co Donegal.

Cul a cnoic

Thirty-five whales have been found dead on a beach on Rutland Island in Co Donegal.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1106/whales.html#video

Harps

Heard about this the other day, they must have gotten trapped and confused in the narrow channel and became exhausted. Sad but not much that could be done really

Durnish

Gosh, bit of a disposal problem there or does it not matter in an unhabited area?
Sad, but.

Madam

It's those nasty Brits AGAIN:rolleyes:

'SONAR' interfering with the poor things?

longhalloween

Durnish wrote: »

Gosh, bit of a disposal problem there or does it not matter in an unhabited area?
Sad, but.

Guess they'll just have to use the 'whalebarrow'

(leaves forum never to return)

inode

lets hope they don't dispose of the whales this way :P


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vmnq5dBF7Y

killerbeg

longhalloween wrote: »

Guess they'll just have to use the 'whalebarrow'

(leaves forum never to return)

Are there no whalie bins there?
(also leaves forum never to return)

Durnish

Amazing to think that Donegal once had a whaling industry, down in the Port at Inver.
Maybe these whales have been sent as a gift to help those who wish to get cheap oil without having to resort to smelly drums sloshing about in a trailer bed.

ToniTuddle

Jaysus :eek:

That is a serious amount to die in one go. Esp sad seeing as most were Mothers and calves not just old ones ready to die...

Harps

Yep apparently one or two of them got sick and got exhausted so landed on the beach and the rest of them joined to try and help but obviously got stuck and died. Not confirmed but that seems to have replaced the sonar as the most probable reason

Durnish

Sweat's off then for the Royal Navy? Great.

Seriously, I have seen two pilot whale corpses washed ashore at different times, on the Dawros peninsula, near Portnoo. The first one washed up whole, flesh, oil everything. Stank like hell for weeks and no birds went near it to strip it. Eventually it melted down, somehow.

The other one was a complete skeleton when we found it. Amazing condition, vertebra complete. Must have been stripped by sea creatures when it was in the water of a sea pool and so was protected from the waves destructive action. With great difficulty we strapped the whole thing to roofing ladder and dragged it up to the car and deposited the complete works on a friend's stone wall, where it sits to this day.

The moral of all of this is that I think the sea will take care of a whale carcass but, once it lands above normal high tide, nothing land or airborne will help its components recycle into the environment. Hope that makes sense.

I pics of both skellingtons. May post them later. The stripped one is simply beautiful.

danniemcq

W(h)ales Found dead on Irish beach...


England and Scotland deny any responsibility

muffler

danniemcq wrote: »

W(h)ales Found dead on Irish beach...


England and Scotland deny any responsibility

Close the door quietly on your way out

Durnish

Let's see if I can remember how to post images,



The jaw bones were lying a bit further up, out of shot. I sent a snap to the whale people and confirmed it as a long finned pilot whale. People living nearby said their son had seen the skellington about two weeks earlier, flesh and all, in same tidal pool. So two weeks is what it took to strip it.

ToniTuddle

That's an excellent photo!
It's now on your mates wall....out along the road to scare folks coming near the house :pac::pac::pac: