A small whale comes ashore.

A report came in whilst I visiting the Dolphin Centre in Spey Bay on Sunday morning that a whale had stranded not far away. The report included photos and a position on a map. A swift car journey followed by a scramble on slippery cliff paths - initially in very much the wrong direction - eventually leads us down to a complex shore of multi-coloured boulders, pebbles, rocks and sand. 

The whale is lying almost right side up high on the shore but below the strand line.

Her eyes are shut and her double blow-hole firmly closed. This is miniature baleen whale. She has an immaculate series of parallel pleats below her chin. (In life these pleats would have allowed her throat to bell out and take in water and prey.) The immaculate white stripes on her nearly tucked in pectoral fins say clearly she is a minke whale. Almost the smallest of all the baleen whales reaching only 7-9 metres when fully grown and this one is small even for this species, maybe only 5 metres. Hardly bigger than the bottlenose dolphins for which these waters are better known. And she is very skinny. 

Her back is concave to either side of the massive ridge of her spine.She is freshly dead. She smells sweet; there is no hint of decay. In fact for a few moments I fear she is only in repose, holding her breath and denying signs of death as only a whale can do. Some gentle probing confirms no sign of life and then careful examination also shows the marks of scavengers mixed with the scrapes to her black skin which has been scored in places as her body had been carried on the waves through the rocks to where she now rests.

Her mouth on the side slightly twisted down is gaping slightly, and fine white baleen shows inside.

There is no obvious wound to help explain her death, although we do not turn her to look underneath. The expert pathologists from Inverness will inspect her fully in due course.

Whilst I have talked about her species a lot over the years and I have seen her kind fleeting pass by and under boats, this is a rare opportunity to look at one up close.

So I admire how immaculate and streamlined she is; the beauty of her simple symmetry.  I note her pointed rostrum, her triangular head, her beautifully crafted bifurcated tail fins and her immaculate coat of black (above) counter-shaded through grey to pure white (below), and - of course - it is also sad.

Sad because she is broken and we are too late to help.

her tail

Her pectoral fin with its stripe of white

baleen inside her mouth

the pointed tip to her jaws

a small minke on the shore