Mowi salmon farmers help save stranded whales on Uist
A crew from Mowi’s Lochboisdale salmon farm on South Uist played a key role in the rescue of eight pilot whales yesterday, although the fate of the animals still hangs in the balance.
David Steele, owner of Uist Sea Tours, called the farm for help yesterday morning after discovering that a pod of 15 whales that had arrived in the bay on Thursday had become stranded in seaweed close to the shore.
“They immediately sent a boat with three crew round to help and between the boat and locals (up to 20 people) we managed to get eight of them back out to deeper water. We are hopeful that they carry on out to sea but are concerned that they might not,” said Steele in a Facebook post.
“So, a big shout out to Mowi for their help, those eight have a chance of survival thanks to their assistance and also to Chris at Grianaig House and young Declan MacQuarrie for wading out to help from the shore side.”
First pilot whales
It is the first time Steele has seen pilot whales in the bay in the seven years he has been running his boat tour business.
One of the animals looked ill, and he suspects that’s why it and the rest of the pod came dangerously close to the shoreline.
Steele worked as a fish farmer for Marine Harvest, as Mowi was then called, for eight years before starting his tour business in 2013.
His own boat was not suitable for pulling the whales away from the shore, but he knew Mowi had a boat that would so the job.
Same football team
“I just called them straight away. I am friendly with the manager there, with played with the same football team,” he told Fish Farming Expert.
Steele, who also fishes lobster and knows the shoreline intimately, piloted the boat while the crew held on to the tails of the whales to pull them out to deeper water.
“A couple of them were so far in that we had to put a rope around their tails and pulled them out. We didn’t want to, but we had to do something,” he said.
Seven of the whales couldn’t be rescued and have died. The eight surviving whales remain in the bay, still relatively close to shore, and Steele was today taking his boat out in an attempt to push them further out to sea.
“I am just about to go out,” he said. “High tide is at 1pm.”
Hired a second boat
While salmon farming has been able to continue during the Covid-19 lockdown, albeit with changes to ensure the safety of the workforce, it has been a tough few months for tourism businesses like Steele’s.
“We had hired in a second boat for this year because it was looking like it was going to be a busy season,” he said.
“It is going to be tough to make it to next year.”
No financial help
Uist Sea Tours has not had any financial help, although Steele is grateful that the person who he hired the second boat from has told him he does not have to pay for it.
He has applied to the Scottish Government’s fund for tourism businesses but is still waiting for an answer, even though he knows of businesses who have had help and have been invited to apply for more.
“I might have to look for other work,” he said.
