Twice-stranded whale dies in Cornwall

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue organisation have today (21 March) confirmed a whale, which became stranded twice over the course of 24 hours, has sadly died.

Rescue teams were rushed to Gwithian Beach - near St Ives - yesterday (Thursday) - and they managed to re-float the female pilot whale, but it wasn't long until the creature found itself yet again stranded - this time near Lambeth Walk Beach.

We're told the 3.67m animal is now being removed from the beach for a post-mortem examination.

We've been hearing from Dan Jarvis, who is from the charity.

'This was always an expected potential outcome'

He told us: "Unfortunately, this morning, the whale that was stranded yesterday was found deceased by our volunteers.

"This was always an expected potential outcome.

"This all started at around 11.30 yesterday, when our team was alerted to Gwithian Beach, so we set out a mass message to our volunteers to call for assistance.

"I was the first volunteer on scene, and the coastguard were invaluable to manage the members of the public, and also helped to keep us safe.

"We worked to make the animal comfortable - and she seemed to be responding pretty well to the first aid, which we were carrying out.

"We then had to wait for the tide to carry her out, so one of our big challenges was keeping her calm until the tide came back in again."

When the tide came back in, two pontoons were inflated with compressed air, and as the water came up, the team was able to release the animal back into the sea.

About an hour later, the animal re-stranded, just before it got dark, and was then last seen heading out into open water, past the harbour.

But sadly, she found herself once again on the beach.

'This one was alone'

Dan added: "We do get pilot whales around the UK, but they tend to be deep water creatures.

"They are also known to stay in quite large groups, and it seems this one was alone, which raised some concern amongst our teams.

"And this sad case is one of a number of strandings already in Cornwall this year - just a few weeks ago, a dolphin ended up on the beach in an extremely malnourished state after one of the recent storms.

"In happier news, we had another dolphin in Lostwithiel which we successfully rescued, back in January, after it swam six miles inland, up the river.

"Our message - the sooner we hear about these incidents, the faster we can get out to them, and the greater the chances we can give these animals to get back out into the open water."

You can find out more about the organisation - and they work they do - on their website.

First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Rayo app.