Four years ago on the north slide of Scotland , 39 long - fin pilot whalesstranded themselvesas the tide was going out . Rescue teams oversee to save just over one-half of thecetaceans , but what have this mass stranding outcome has been the sum of speculation ever since . Most attention has , however , been focused on the Royal Navy testing ground located in the sphere .
Now , a long - awaitedreportconducted by British governmental scientists has been released , in which the authors lastly reach a conclusion over what caused the stranding event . The solar day before the beaching , the Navy detonate three 454 - kg ( 1,000 - pound ) bombs in the region , and another 113 - kilogram ( 250 - pounding ) turkey after the strandings begin .
They write of the first three bombs that it is potential " that the magnitude and frequence of sequential underwater detonations [ … ] would have had a significant detrimental effect on the hearing and therefore navigational competence of any cetaceans in propinquity , ” and that the fourth explosion “ might have assist to beat back the brute further inland . ”
Shortly after the first three bomb calorimeter explosion in Cape Wrath – thelargest lively bombardment rangein Europe – on July 22 , 2011 , a pod of 70 pilot program whales float into a shallow tidal inlet nearby . Despite best efforts to try out and crowd the giant out to deep water supply , 39 were get out stranded as the tide go out . Volunteers and expert tried to refloat as many of the mammals as potential , but 19 subsequently pass .
The report , transmit by theDepartment for Environment Food and Rural Affairs , showed that at the time of death , the whale were apparently goodly , show no signboard of obvious disease or unwellness . Whilst happening in a region snug to a busybodied transport lane and gamy fishing activity , they encounter that none of these sufficiently explained the beaching . The only famed difference identified over those two days was the natural event of the military test .
Around 4.5 kilometers ( 2.8 sea mile ) from the inlet in which the whale were maroon is the island of Garvie . The island is used as target exercise during military practice session , and when they miss and the bombs sink to the bottom of the ocean , the Navy then have to go in and manually irrupt them . It is thought that the randomness from these explosion damaged the haircloth in the giant ' ears do them “ functionally indifferent . ” It seems this confusedness is what led them to swim into the recess in the first place , and then reluctant to swim out again .
