Pete Bevington

24 July, 2007

TWO dolphins came to a sad end in Shetland last Friday after spending an entire week circling in one of the islands' inlets.

The two Atlantic white-sided dolphins were first seen in Weisdale Voe the previous Saturday, raising concerns that they may have come inshore to strand.

The pair appeared to be quite content until yesterday morning when local man Charlie Stewart, who had been keeping a close eye on them from his home in nearby Kalliness, rose at 6.30am to find one of them had beached on the west side of the voe.

Mr Stewart called out local SSPCA inspector Ron Patterson and with help from other people they tried to force the female back into the water, but eventually decided to end its life.

"She kept on beaching no matter how many times we put her back into the water," Mr Patterson said. "We kept pushing her off the rocks into the water and she kept coming back.

"About 11.30 we decided it was best for the animal if it was put down humanely. In my opinion there was nothing more that could have been done to help and I think the post mortem will verify that."

Meanwhile concern was growing for the male dolphin which had also been trying to beach itself when the female went ashore.

Initially two staff from Scottish Natural Heritage attempted to herd it out of the voe, but he kept coming back inshore. Concerned onlookers and volunteers spent the whole day watching him swim in ever decreasing circles.

Jan Bevington, of Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary, spent all of Friday afternoon watching the animal and was there when it too died shortly after 6pm.

"It kept coming further and further in the voe and it was obvious it was in a very bad way. It was going to beach and there was nothing anyone could have done about it," Ms Bevington said.

"As the tide went out it got stuck on a sand bank. It panicked and thrashed and thrashed for about 20 minutes. Blood had been coming out of its rear end for some time before that.

"There's nothing anyone could have done to help. It was too dangerous to try and get near it because it was thrashing about so much. It was very upsetting for everyone to see.

"It looked awful, but I think it speeded up the inevitable. It would most likely have taken another three or four hours if it hadn't beached."

Last month a pod of five white-sided dolphins were seen circling in Weisdale Voe, and similar numbers have been a regular sight over the past few years.

Three years ago five dolphins died after stranding in the voe and the following year two were successfully rescued after they too stranded.