The National Whale Stranding Recording Scheme
Live sightings versus strandings
The National Whale Strandings Monitoring scheme has never sought the death of an animal for the aquisition of scientific information. Instead, it seeks to mitigate the death of an animal by recording as much information as possible of the event.
Species recorded in live sightings, listed in decreasing order of frequency of stranding between 1966-1990.
| Phocoena phocoena | Harbour Porpoise | 431 |
| Globicephala melas | Long-finned Pilot Whale | 374 |
| Delphinus delphis | Common Dolphin | 184 |
| Lagenorhynchus albirostris | White-beaked Dolphin | 99 |
| Balaenoptera acutorostrata | Minke Whale | 58 |
| Tursiops truncatus | Bottle-nosed Dolphin | 55 |
| Physeter catodon | Sperm Whale | 53 |
| Lagenorhynchus acutus | White-sided Dolphin | 52 |
| Grampus griseus | Risso's Dolphin | 44 |
| Hyperoodon ampullatus | Bottle-nosed Whale | 28 |
| Orcinus orca | Killer Whale | 27 |
| Mesoplodon bidens | Sowerby's Beaked Whale | 25 |
| Stenella coeruleoalba | Striped Dolphin | 25 |
| Ziphius cavirostris | Cuvier's Beaked Whale | 13 |
| Balaenoptera physalus | Fin Whale | 7 |
| Balaenoptera borealis | Sei Whale | 5 |
| Kogia breviceps | Pygmy Sperm Whale | 2 |
| Megaptera novaeangliae | Humpback Whale | 2 |
| Balaenoptera musculus | Blue Whale | 0 |
| Eubalaena glacialis | Black Right Whale | 0 |
| Delphinapterus leucas | Beluga Whale | 0 |
| Pseudorca crassidens | False Killer Whale | 0 |
Evans P.G.H., 1992. Status review of cetaceans in British and Irish waters. 90pp. UK Mammal Society Cetacean Group. University of Oxford.
The graph below shows the proportionality in the number of strandings around Britain with the number of live sightings about the British Isles.
Taking all species into account, the correlation is better than 95%. Logically, in the absence of any animals offshore, then no strandings will take place. Live sightings data from Evans (1992).
