Agony on a Cornish beach: what do whale strandings tell us about our oceans?

The number of whales, porpoises and dolphins being washed up on the UK’s shores is on the rise, and human activity is largely to blame, say experts

A whale’s tail swishes high into the air, pausing at the apex of its stretch before beating down with a thud into the hard, rocky ground. The noise is sickening, the sound of two things coming together that were never supposed to meet. In the UK, encounters with megafauna are rare, so it is truly shocking to see this colossal creature stranded and gasping for air on the coast of Cornwall last March. We later find out it is a 19-metre (63ft), 80-tonne fin whale – the second largest creature on Earth.

Some of the first on the scene are members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue service (BDMLR), one of several organisations called upon when a cetacean (whale, dolphin or porpoise) crashes on shore. In recent years, reports of cetacean strandings on UK coasts have reached record levels, with numerous mass strandings and a greater variety of species appearing on beaches. Already in 2023, there have been reports of a fin whale stranded in Cornwall in January and a stranded porpoise dying on the Yorkshire coast this month.

Simon Myers, a volunteer with Clean Ocean Sailing, attempts to keep the stranded fin whale wet while waiting for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue service (BDMLR) to arrive