THE POST-mortem examination on a killer whale washed up on beach on Tiree last year has found it to be the ‘most contaminated on the planet’, leading scientists to predict its pod living off Scotland’s West Coast will become extinct.
The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, managed by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), found the killer whale had one of the highest levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) pollution ever recorded.
The adult killer whale – identified as a well-known animal named ‘Lulu’ – died after becoming entangled in creel rope in January 2016, but subsequent analysis undertaken over the past year has shed further light on her case.