A rare 40ft whale which got stranded in the Firth of Forth sparking a major rescue mission has tragically been found dead.
The Sei Whale, which is rarely seen in Scottish waters, was found on Wednesday, November 10, near North Queensferry in Fife.
Volunteers for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) soon arrived at the scene and found the animal half submerged in the water.
As the group assessed the best way to get it back out to sea, the animal managed to free itself but was almost stranded a second time on nearby rocks.
After wildly thrashing around, the massive whale made its own way out into deeper water and was monitored swimming strongly in an easterly direction.
But the BDMLR issued the upsetting update regarding the whale’s fate on Thursday and said it’s body had been found further along the coastline.
They wrote: “The Sei whale has sadly been found dead after restranding on a beach a little further up the coast.
“Unfortunately the survival rate of large whales who have already stranded is quite low as there is usually a reason for why they have beached themselves.
“Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme (SMASS) will be attending to perform a necropsy on the animal and they will share their results with us to see if there was any underlying cause.
“A sad ending to what was a hopeful rescue.”
Speaking to the Record earlier told how they were drafted in to try to help the stricken whale.
They wrote: “Yesterday, Wednesday 10th November 2021, we received a callout to a stranding of a whale in North Queensferry, Scotland.
“A team of our trained Marine Mammal Medics were dispatched to attend to the animal. It appeared the animal was stuck in chest-deep water and was unable to free itself.
“On arrival, all our team could see was a long back and a tall dorsal fin with the odd breath from its blowhole.
“From the large dorsal, plus the fact it measured 12.8m in length, it was determined to be a Sei whale.
“The fact that the whale was upright in the water certainly increased its probability of survival, but the fact that it was submerged made it much more difficult to assess.
