Whales found beached and dead on Donegal island beach

Sceala Clann T.D. Location: Belfast and Donegal.

A heart breaking sight not far from me. I felt compelled to go and witness this tragedy.
The group of longfin pilot whales not long before they all beached and died on Rutland Island, Donegal.
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How noble and loyal these whales are, the sick and the healthy stay together - no matter what.
News report
Up to 35 pilot whales have been found washed up dead in Co. Donegal in Ireland.
The marine mammals, mostly mothers and calves, were discovered on a beach near Burtonport on Rutland Island.
Emear McGee, Conservation Ranger from the Irish Parks and Wildlife Service said: "Longfin pilot whales usually feed far offshore and when the come in-shore like this probably some of the group are sick.
"This is generally what happens and they all stay together so healthy ones come ashore with the sick ones because they are a very strong social group and the sick and healthy died here together."
Local ferryman Seamus Boyle spotted the whales a few days earlier: "I just couldn't belive what happened after
watching them the past few days, swimming about and the passengers getting excited. And just to see them dead is hard to believe."

Thirty-five whales have beached and died on an island off Burtonport in Co Donegal.
The whales were discovered this afternoon on a beach on Rutland Island and are understood to be pilot whales, mostly mothers and calves.
The whales had been seen feeding in the area around Aranmore Island since Tuesday.
Environmentalists are trying to establish how 33 whales beached and died off the coast of County Donegal.

They were found on Rutland Island near Burtonport on Saturday.

It's thought they were the same group spotted in the Inner Hebrides at the end of October.

Dr Simon Berrow of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group said it was one of the biggest mass deaths of whales in Irish history.

He is concerned that Royal Navy sonar equipment could have played a role.

"Thirty or 40 pilot whales were spotted off the Inner Hebrides at South Uist last week," he said.

"It looked like they were going to strand. It was bad weather. They were not seen again."

Dr Berrow said the British Navy had been in the area off South Uist and had moved away.

Campaigners were concerned that the latest sonar equipment could have disturbed the navagational skills of this deep diving species of whales.

No-one from the Royal Navy was available to comment on Sunday.

In the past, the navy has denied that sonar noise from their warships could cause whales to beach.

However, in America, the US Navy was ordered not to use mid-frequency sonar during training exercises from 2007 and 2009, after a judge found in favour of campaigners who argued the devices harmed marine mammals in the area.

A team from Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology travelled to the scene off Donegal at the weekend to see if they could determine what had happened.

Sixty whales died in the 1960s off the west coast of Kerry and 35 to 40 animals died in north Kerry in 2001.

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Whales found beached and dead on Donegal island beach