Rescuers refloat stranded minke Whale

Wildlife experts have refloated a whale which became stranded on a beach in Fife.

The 20-foot minke was spotted on a beach west of Elie by a passer-by just before 4pm on Friday.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue led the operation to refloat the mammal at high tide.

A BDMLR spokeswoman said: ''The whale's body condition was fair and it was not injured so we decided to refloat it on the high tide.

We had pontoons in place but when we refloated it, it swam in a circle and re-beached itself.

They found it and got it onto the pontoon again. It was still fairly strong and in a state to swim off the pontoon.

We think it might just have got disorientated with the tide, so this time the RNLI followed it out to sea.

We've had volunteers walking up and down the beach, and so far there's no sign of it so hopefully it will be OK.''