Dead 20ft pilot whale washes ashore in Veymandhoo

The corpse of a large 20-foot pilot whale has been found washed up on the shores of Th. Veymandoo.

Rashwan Adam, the president of Veymandhoo Council, told Sun that the pilot whale washed up on the shores of the island sometime Friday night.

It is estimated to be around 20 feet in length, said Rashwan.

Councilman Nadheem Ahmed told Sun that locals tied it up to a dinghy and released the corpse back into the ocean.

 He said that while such incidents are rare in Veymandhoo, there have been a few incidents throughout the last four years where dolphins got stranded on the island’s beaches.

Despite their name, pilot whales are not actually whales, but one of the largest members of the dolphin family. They were named pilot whales because it was thought that each pod followed a 'pilot' in the group.