83 Whale Beachings In Iceland This Year

There have been 83 whale beachings so far this year over 34 separate occasions, Morgunblaðið reports.

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This has included 59 pilot whales and seven sperm whales. Sverrir Daníel Halldórsson, a biologist at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, visited the site of a beached fin whale near Þorlákshöfn. He told reporters that it can be safely assumed that a fin whale beaches in Iceland about every other year.

There have been some ups and downs when it comes to how many whales beach in Iceland each year. Last year, 41 whales beached here in 29 separate incidents, and in 2019, 153 whales in 31 incidents. In 2018, there was an usual number of northern bottlenose whales found beached here, or 23, but only one such whale has beached here this year.

Whales can beach in Iceland for a variety of reasons; some of them mysterious, others the result of collisions with ships. In any case, beached whales of any species are far from uncommon in Iceland.