A 50-tonne sperm whale ‘got lost’ and ended up stuck in shallow water until locals helped him get back to sea.
Sperm whales can usually be found in waters as deep as 800 metres, where they find most of their food.
But one whale, thought to be a male by experts, got himself stuck in just eight metres of water near the Scottish Shetland Islands on March 21.
He seemed to be stuck there for around 10 days, during which time he was visited by locals excited to see the 45-foot animal almost every day.
Aquaculture technician Gary said: ‘I would say about 40 or 50 people a day came to see it.
‘People were coming from all over Shetland and people from all over the world have been following it on social media.’
Eventually, islanders got together to help the whale – who had been partially breached while so shallow.
Several boats maneuvered the massive animal into deeper water last Wednesday and he finally swam away without any clear injuries.
Gary Buchan, who filmed drone footage of it, said: ‘The whale has gone hopefully, never to be seen again.
‘It was a bit of a shock. The boats maneuvered around it, then just left it.
‘They took it about three or four miles out to sea, into around 40m of water.
‘One of the people on the boats said they saw it making a big dive, and it was never seen again.’
Despite sperm whales’ colossal size, they are not the largest whales – the Antarctic blue whale takes this title as the biggest animal on the planet.
However, sperm whales have the biggest head and brain of any other animal.
It can dive deeper than almost any other marine animal.
They are found all over the world and often swim to the Scottish shore.
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