Rescue workers stand next to TK Bremen cargo ship which ran aground during a powerful storm, spilling oil off the coast of France's northwestern region of Brittany as it lies stranded on Kerminihy beach in Erdeven, on December 16, 2011. (Photo by Damien Meyer/AFP Photo)

“Sixteen pilot whales died when they became stranded at Pittenweem, near St Andrews, on Sunday morning, Forth Coastguard said.

The mammals were part of a group of 26, of which 10 were refloated and returned to sea by vets and more than 50 volunteers from the emergency services and British Divers Marine Life Rescue. The whales were kept cool and hydrated with wet blankets and sheets on the shore”. – WalesOnline

Photo: Emergency service personnel walk near beached whales as they continue in their rescue attempt to save a large number of pilot whales who have beached on September 1, 2012 in Pittenweem, Scotland. A number of whales have died after being stranded on the east coast of Scotland between Anstruther and Pittenweem. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell)

In this March 21, 2015 photo, 15-year-old Guerline Augustin carries river water on her head, back to a borderland encampment outside the southeast Haitian town of Anse-a-Pitres, Haiti. The encampment is filled with people who either fled or were forcibly removed from the neighboring Dominican Republic amid an immigration crackdown. Within the next month, authorities hope to move nearly 2,400 people out of six encampments by providing subsidies for them to rent homes for a year in southeastern Haiti. The International Organization for Migration is coordinating the effort with $2 million from a U.N. emergency fund. (Photo by David McFadden/AP Photo)

A marine rescue worker from Sea World works in a joint attempt with his colleagues to help a juvenile humpback whale stranded at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast, in Queensland July 9, 2014. (Photo by Jason O'Brien/Reuters)

Volunteers try to keep alive some of the hundreds of stranded pilot whales after one of the country's largest recorded mass whale strandings, in Golden Bay, at the top of New Zealand's south island, February 10, 2017. Volunteers in New Zealand managed to refloat about 100 surviving pilot whales on Saturday, February 11, 2017 and are hoping they will swim back out to sea after more than 400 of the creatures swam aground at a remote beach. (Photo by Ross Wearing/Reuters)

Rescuers pull dead whales ashore in Probolinggo, East Java, Indonesia, Thursday, June 16, 2016 during a mass rescue operation of stranded whales. Most of more than 30 stranded whales were managed to be pulled into the deep sea, an official said. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)

“Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus Globicephala. There are two extant species, the long-finned pilot whale (G. melas) and the short-finned pilot whale (G. macrorhynchus). The two are not readily distinguished at sea and analysis of the skulls is the best way to tell the difference between the two species. Between the two species, pilot whales range in waters nearly worldwide with long-finned pilot whales living in cooler waters and short-finned pilot whales living in warmer waters. Pilot whales are among the largest of the oceanic dolphins, exceeded in size only by the killer whale. They and other large members of the dolphin family are also known as blackfish”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Pilot whales swim in Loch Carron on May 20, 2011 in South Uist, Scotland. A major operation is underway to prevent up to 100 pilot whales from stranding on the rocky shoreline of Loch Carron on South Uist in the Western Isles. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

A dog looks at a five-meter-long sperm whale stranded at San Bartolo beach, in Lima, on August 20, 2019. Surfers and policemen saved Tuesday an injured whale which remained stranded some hours at a beach in southern Lima, police informed. (Photo by Ernesto Benavides/AFP Photo)