I found some interesting skate/ray cases washed up on the beach on Sanday, #Orkney where we are investigating the pilot #whale mass stranding. 🦈 Dr. Lauren Smith - any idea which species these belong to? 🦈🐳

Day 4 of pilot #whale mass #stranding investigation on Sanday, #Orkney. Decomposition has set in and the whales are well gooey by now. Today, the focus was on collecting the skulls, teeth, and scapula for our collaborators National Museums Scotland 🐳💀 #StrandingsTeamAssemble

The cavalry came to help us take the pilot #whale skulls off the beach 🚜🐳 The skulls are destined for museum collections National Museums Scotland. It takes serious elbow grease to shift them, as they can weigh over 150 kg each! #StrandingsTeamAssemble #Orkney

This is what histology samples from 36 pilot #whale beach necropsies look like! 🐳🔪🫀🫁🧠 #StrandingsTeamAssemble #Orkney

I think we are all pretty excited to be out of these coveralls, head home, and do some serious laundry… 🐳🧦🧼 #StrandingsTeamAssemble #Orkney

I can’t say it enough: The Sanday community is amazing. Their kindness and generosity made a very difficult mass stranding response so much easier 🐳🌧️🥰 #StrandingsTeamAssemble #Orkney

SMASS has left the building 🐳🌊⛴️ #StrandingsTeamAssemble #OrkneyFerries

The world’s rarest whale may have washed up on a New Zealand beach. Spade-toothed beaked whales have never been seen alive. They are believed to be exceptionally deep divers, spending their time far below the surface hunting squid and small fish. theguardian.com/environment/vi…

Removal effort coordinated by Orkney Islands Council is underway to clear 77 pilot #whales off the beach in the wake of the mass #stranding investigation 🐳🚜 #StrandingsTeamAssemble #Orkney

Goodbye, #Orkney 💙 I would love to visit again someday ….keen to see some whales that are still in the sea next time 😉🌊🐳🌊 #StrandingsTeamDisassemble

The only thing left on the beach now in the wake of the pilot #whale mass stranding investigation are ghosts in the sand. #Orkney

‘Your support has been overwhelming’: A community comes together to help bury Orkney whales after mass stranding dlvr.it/T9j5mD

Patiently counting down the days until the #PintOfAngryBees online store reopens… 🐳🐋🐬 AJRandalls Any chance pilot #whale stickers are next in line for production?😉 👉🏻pintofangrybees.com

Had the coolest day visiting Tessa Plint and Anna Kebke at the Lyell Centre with two of our SMASS interns to see where the magic happens! They are using stable isotopes and fatty acids to uncover foraging ecology & life history secrets of #cetaceans 🪄 👩‍🔬

Last day in the #lab and the end of an era 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Thank you to the good humans who made this a fun place to work! 🥰 Off to new postdoc adventures in #Canada 🇨🇦 Stay tuned for whaley great things 🐳

It has been an absolute privilege to work with and learn from the SMASS team over the past several years 🐳♥️ I miss you guys already! 🥲🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿—>🇨🇦 #OpportunityOfALifeTime

Visited McGill University’s small, but mighty Redpath Museum today and encountered this massive (partial) Bowhead whale skull (new postdoc included for scale;) 🐋

🐾Turn your beach walk into a conservation tool with Beachtrack! Record your walk, report stranded animals & log marine litter to help identify patterns and quantity effort! 🦭🌊 📲 Download now, and lets protect our seas together! beachtrack.org

Behold the #source of all knowledge! 🤭 (…for stable isotope #scientists, that is) ⚡️ The “ion source” is the heart of an #isotope ratio mass #spectrometer, and makes it possible to detect the gases produced by our tissue samples 🐋🐬🐠 #whale #ecology #irms