Experts arrive to examine Orkney stranded whales

Cetacean experts from around the UK are due to arrive in Orkney to begin examinations and post-mortems on a stranded pod of 77 pilot whales.

The pod washed ashore on Sanday beach on Wednesday in what experts believe to be the largest mass stranding in nearly 100 years.

Experts from the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) and UK Cetacean Stranding Investigation Programme (CSIP) will begin examinations of the pod, using tissue samples to establish the cause of the stranding. Stranding expert

Emma Neave-Webb said there would be some post-mortem examinations carried out in an attempt to determine the cause of death.

She said: "The team are going through every animal taking measurements, they are taking photographs and they are putting a tag on every one so we know which animal is which.

"From that we will work out which animals are perhaps in the worst condition nutritionally and they’ll be the ones we’ll target that may hopefully tell us what’s gone on."