Despite the day-long attempts of the volunteers from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) to rescue a whale beached on South Uist in the Western Isles, the animal died as it had been out of water for too long.

When the 60ft whale - which seemingly is either a rare sei whale or a minke whale - was found stranded on a beach near Gerinish, on South Uist, local volunteers made relentless efforts to keep the animal comfortable all day. However, their rescue attempts were stopped by the experts who felt that the animal had been out of the water for a long time and was dying.

According to the information shared by Stornoway Coastguard, the BDMLR volunteers spent the entire day trying to refloat the two-tonne whale, but it turned out to be impossible to get the creature back in the water.

Noting that the sightings of sei whales in Scotland are quite rare, the BDMLR spokeswoman elaborated that these mammals generally inhabit warm and deep waters. The spokeswoman also added that the appearance of one of the sei whale species in shallow waters was "extremely unusual."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the coastguard revealed that a vet had attended on the whale, and after assessing all the possible options for it to be euthanised, came to the conclusion that the best option was to leave the animal to die of natural causes because "nothing would have worked."