In numbers: How many whales are found dead on UK beaches?

In January 2016, after five sperm whales died and washed up on beaches in the east of England within days of each other, we looked at data on how many ofthe sea creatures die every year on our shores.

Visualisation

• Map: Whale deaths on our shores (shown above)
• Bar chart: Longest whales stranded in the UK
• Infographic: Whale deaths in the UK
• Bar chart: Whales stranded on UK land by species

Data

• 5 biggest stranded whales by length
• Summary of causes of death of UK-stranded cetaceans, marine turtles and basking sharks examined at post-mortem

Resources

• UK Cetaceans Strandings Investigation Programme