British Divers Marine Life Rescue to carry out mass whale stranding exercise at Sizewell beach in Suffolk
A group of up to 40 animal rescue volunteers are to take part in a training exercise at a Suffolk beach to test their skills in a mass whale stranding scenario.
The volunteers, from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), will rescue several life-size inflatable models of pilot whales ‘stranded’ on the Sizewell beach, near Southwold, tomorrow in simulated conditions.
Dan Jarvis, director of welfare and conservation at BDMLR, said: “These exercises are really important and useful to our volunteers for gaining experience, testing their first aid, assessment, rescue and communication skills, and particularly for our incident coordinators to take charge of organising everything from animal care to emergency services liaison to crowd and media control.
“They don’t happen too often as they’re a huge logistical challenge to set up, and of course we were unable to run them during the pandemic.”
According to the charity, Britain has seen a rise in mass strandings involving pilot whales and sometimes other species in recent years, with one of the largest incidents on record for the country taking place in the Isle of Lewis involving 55 pilot whales.
There are a variety of reasons why mass strandings can occur, including a sick or injured animal inadvertently leading the others ashore as they try to help it; being frightened by loud underwater noises such as sonar; or simply from becoming disoriented in unfamiliar intertidal or enclosed areas like estuaries and harbours.
Claire Flint, BDMLR’s area coordinator for the Suffolk region, said: “I’m really looking forward to taking on this challenge and seeing how we perform not only as individuals, but working together as a team.
“This is one of the amazing things about this charity, in that as trained volunteers we can still essentially be strangers to one another, but when called upon in a real-life situation we come together to achieve what is best for these enigmatic creatures.”
Members of the public who find a stranded live dolphin or whale are asked to call BDMLR’s 24hr emergency hotline 01825 765546 immediately for urgent first aid advice and for assistance to be dispatched as soon as possible.