Two bottlenose whales wash up on Fife beach

A recovery operation is under way after two whales became stranded on a Fife beach.

Coastguard and British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) teams worked overnight to help the bottlenose whales at Torry Bay near Culross.

One of the whales died this morning at 06:00 BST and the other is unlikely to survive, the BDLMR said.

They are currently waiting on further veterinary advice before they decide what do with it.

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A spokeswoman for the BDMLR said they were monitoring the whale which is supporting itself in the water but bottlenose whales are a deep-diving species, and the whale is far outside of its normal habitat.

"Two sets of specialist rescue equipment were brought to the area just in case any rescue may have been possible," she said.

"But after discussions with the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, some complications were found and it was also deemed dangerous to get the animals in the dark on an incoming tide."

The BDMLR said they are monitoring the whale which is supporting itself in the water

The animals are thought to be two from a trio of the same species spotted in the Moray Firth earlier.

A spokesperson for the coastguard said: "We were called out to Torry Bay Nature Reserve to help with live stranded whales at 11.35pm [23:35 BST] on Tuesday."

Northern bottlenose whales are most commonly found in the North Atlantic Ocean although they have been known to wash up on beaches across the Baltic Sea.

Adults can reach up to 10m in length and feed primarily on squid.

The stranding is the latest of several in the UK, and comes 10 days after a pod of 55 whales beached in the Western Isles.