So how DO you dispose of 77 dead whales? Experts must decide whether to bury carcasses on beach, send to landfill or even blow them up with explosives after Britain's biggest mass stranding in decades

Britain suffered one of its largest mass stranding of whales yesterday - but how do you dispose of 77 mammals washed up on the shore?

Dozens of pilot whales were found dead or dying on Tresness Beach, on the island of Sanday.

Rescuers were confronted by the horrifying scene of 65 of the animals already dead, with a further 12 of the long-finned whales still alive four hours later.

In this case, sometimes the suffering mammals are returned to the sea because their carcasses are an important source of nutrients for marine life.

But there are various methods of getting rid of the massive beached bodies, from incineration to burial - but some settle on a more explosive choice.

Occasionally the authorities decide to blow up the carcass, so those out for a stroll nearby may want to bring an umbrella.

In what may be the least grim process for those undertaking the task, sometimes the whales are buried on the beach where they were found or taken to landfill.

And if the whales undergo a post-mortem examination, the skeleton is often offered to a museum for its collection.

Among the group on Sanday were males up to 22ft long, females, calves and juveniles.

Scientists have so far been unable to say exactly why whales beach, or why the numbers of strandings are on the increase along Britain's shores.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said it 'received a report of a mass stranding of up to 100 long-finned pilot whales' on Sanday at about 10.45am'.

Sadly, the BDMLR confirmed on Thursday that night none of the animals had survived.

Dr Andrew Brownlow, who is director of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme and chair of the International Whaling Commission expert panel for strandings said his team were seeking answers over what acoustic activity may have been happening off Orkney.

'Pilot whales can form very large groups, superpods of many tens, when they are subject to disturbance such as noise or the threat of killer whales,' he said.

'We want to know what acoustic activity was taking place in the hours and days before this latest stranding. Man has made our oceans noisier and these activities are having an affect - so we need to get a better understanding at what's happening and the impact on creatures like whales.'

In the event that whales cannot be saved, they are usually euthanized - in various ways.

Back in November 1970, officials in Oregon, USA decided to blow up a rotting whale carcass that had washed ashore.

Deliberating how to dispose of the 45-foot sperm whale, authorities decided against chopping it up or leaving it to decompose, and instead blasted the corpse with dynamite so seagulls could eat the smaller chunks left behind.

Ignoring advice that a few sticks would be enough, the engineer in charge opted for half a tonne of the explosive as a gathered crowd watched on.

But the dynamite sent huge chunks of blubber into the air - which rained down on the heads of the people who came to watch the spectacle.

A car half a mile away was also smacked with a massive blob of the mammal, as its remains scattered up to 800 ft from the site.

Sometimes, dynamite isn't required, and the decomposing whales fill with gas and implode on their own.

Whale skin can withstand a great deal of pressure, so when it does burst it is often a dramatic sight.

In 2004, a dead whale burst while being transported on a trailer to a research centre, pelting cars and people nearby with its organs.

Ten years ago, an unlucky biologist was filmed trying to cut open a whale carcass which exploded all over him.

The sperm whale died after being beached in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, captured on camera by the Faroese Broadcasting Corporation.

As soon as he began working, the gas trapped inside exploded, spewing tons of organs and guts into the air. 

While these incidents do lead to morbid excitement when people gather in anticipation, a lot of the time it deflates slowly and without spectacle.

Sometimes the mammals are simply buried where they washed up, but this has to be weighed up against the public nuisance of having the carcass on the beach.

Birds are able to scavenge a great deal from a whale, but often it is just too much for them and they leave a lot behind to rot.

This seems to be a common choice, as many whales which have washed ashore in the UK are buried. 

In some circumstances the whale may be towed back to sea, but this must be done carefully as the body will remain buoyant before sinking.

This could pose a shipping hazard, especially if the whale was on the larger side.

But when a whale died, the corpse sinks to the seabed and provides a host of essential nutrients to the marine environment.

The carcass produces manganese, phosphorus, iron, and zinc, which can support a variety of sea life.

Scavengers will eat the soft tissue while worms and other organisms will feed on the mammal's skeleton. 

Strandings are becoming an increasingly common sight on coastlines around the world, including on Britain's beaches.

Up to 600 whales and dolphins wash on the UK's shores alone, and experts are still unsure of the exact reasons for the epidemics.

A report compiled by UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) on behalf of the government found there were nearly 5,000 whale and dolphin strandings in the UK between 2011 and 2017.

The most common species found on beaches were harbour porpoises and short-beaked common dolphins. 

A pod of 55 pilot wales were stranded on the isle of Lewis in Scotland in July last year. 

Further south in North Berwick, a minke whale became a tourist attraction after beaching near a nature reserve.

And a sperm whale turned up on a beach in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire in April 2023.

In east Yorkshire a huge 55ft, 30 tonne fin whale turned up on Bridlington beach in May 2023, days after being spotted getting into difficulties in the sea.

Factors thought to be behind the strandings include poor weather, which can confuse an animal's sense of direction, and diseases.

Dr Brownlow added that he was still awaiting information from an acoustic buoy that may contain vital clues over last year's mass stranding at Tolsta Beach on the Isle of Lewis.

Then an entire pod of 55 pilot whales died. Only 15 of whales were alive when they were washed ashore. One was successfully re-floated while the rest had to be euthanised.

A large pod of pilot whales stranded in July, 2011, at the Kyle of Durness, Sutherland, in what was then believed to have been Scotland's largest ever such event. Some 19 of the 70 whales died.

Four large bombs exploded underwater by the Royal Navy were later blamed by government scientists for the mass stranding.

It is also thought that the sonar waves can frighten deep-diving whales, forcing them to surface too quickly and leading to symptoms similar to decompression sickness, also known as the bends, in humans.

But a spokesman for the MoD has said the Navy does all it can to ensure sonar is not damaging marine life.

'The Royal Navy takes its responsibilities in safeguarding the environment very seriously and, when at all possible, operators take avoidance actions should animals be detected before or during sonar operations,' he said.

Dr Brownlow added: 'It used to be quite unusual to have a mass stranding event, certainly of this size on Orkney.

'But over the last ten years or so we have seen an increase both in the number of mass stranding events around Scotland and also the size of the mass and the number of animals that it involves.

'So that is slightly concerning and that might be because there are just more animals out there, or it could be that there are more hazards that these animals are exposed to.'