The UK’s Royal Navy has admitted that it was conducting operations in an area linked to the mass stranding of deep-diving whales in Ireland and Scotland three years ago, according to a report in The Times.
Record numbers of beaked whales stranded along Ireland’s North West between Galway and Donegal throughout August 2018, with a similar number found in Scotland. Records were also made in Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
The matter became the focus of a joint investigation by the Department of Foreign Affairs and UK authorities, which later traced the whales’ origin to the Porcupine Bank some 200km off the West Coast.
Use of sonar has been blamed by some experts for previous strandings of deep-diving species like the Cuvier’s beaked whale.
While the Royal Navy is known to use sonar in its operations, unlike Ireland’s Naval Service, it issued a statement in August 2018 saying that there is “no evidence that the deaths of these marine mammals have been attributed to any Royal Navy sonar operations, trials or exercises”.
The Times has more on the story HERE. (Subscription required.)