Whale experts arrive in Orkney to examine deaths of stranded pod

Ms Neave-Webb from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said she felt helpless and emotional visiting the site and seeing the scale of the stranding.

She said: “I’ve seen this type of thing before through strandings that have happened globally but I’ve never experienced it in person with that many animals lying on a beach.

“It’s very emotional when you first arrive. We knew some animals were still alive so they were priority but we had to go through every single animal there.

“Quite often you feel quite helpless because its not a safe environment.

“The animals were very closely packed together with alive animals next to dead animals, they were moving around quite a bit, thrashing their tails occasionally so it was a really dangerous situation.”

The pod included male whales, measuring up to seven metres (22ft) long as well as females, calves and juveniles.

BDMLR medics were brought in from mainland Orkney and Inverness to help with the rescue attempt, but Ms Neave-Webb said it appeared the whales had been stranded for “quite some time”.

Rescuers attempted to keep the whales alive by pouring sea water over them, but the decision was later taken to euthanise them.