Three Dead Sperm Whales Removed from Skegness Beach
Three whales were found washed up at the Skegness beach have been removed from the beach and taken to landfill sites.
Two of these dead whales were found at Gibraltar Point and another at Skegness.
Jan Smith said the operation went smoother than expected.
The operation was expected to take eight hours, but was completed in about five and half hours.
“It’s gone very well, really.” Smiths said.
“The last one where the flaps had been cut open for the autopsy was hard work.”
“You can’t really plan what you are going to do because you don’t know if they are likely to blow up or something. All that you can do is treat them with the utmost respect.”
“It’s a delicate operation.”
The whales were taken to landfill sites at Didcot, Oxfordshire, and Sheffield to be buried.
The body of a young male sperm whale that died on a Norfolk beach is expected to be removed before the end of the week.
This 30 tonne whale had stranded at Hunstanton on Friday and later died.
Contractors will now cut the whale into sections in situ, which will then be incinerated outside Norfolk.
“[Removal of the whale] has taken time due to the location, its huge size and weight and rapidly advancing decomposition.” a spokeswoman said.
“If arrangements can be finalized quickly, the removal is likely to take place before the end of the week.”
She added: “Everyone is strongly urged to keep their distance from the carcass.”
“It is in an advanced state of decomposition which may be distressing to see, particularly for children.”
Officials also revealed that a fifth whale, on a former bombing site, is currently in too dangerous position to move.
Huge Whale Washing Up on UK Beach Dies after Major Rescue Operation
A huge sperm whale that had washed up on Old Hunstanton beach in Norfolk died following a major rescue operation to push it back to deeper water.
This big 50-ft long sperm whale was found stranded on the beach on Friday.
Rescue workers from Hunstanton Sea Life Sanctuary, RNLI, and HM Coastguard tried to save the animal and coax it back to deeper water but all their efforts failed and the whale died at around 11 pm on Friday. The animal had also got distressed after injuring its tail.
“It was obviously a very distressing scene earlier.” said Richard Johnson, senior maritime operations officer for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
“They feed on squid and what’s probably happened is that squid came in and the whales fed upon them but ran out of food.” he said.
“The further south they got the shallower the water gets and when they got to Norfolk, which is very, very shallow, it’s quite difficult to navigate and they tend to lose their way and actually strand.”
“There have been 12 other sperm whales that stranded and died, six in the Netherlands and six in Germany.” he added.
“They were probably all in the same group, quite a big group which are usually adolescent males a few years old.”
Lifeboat spokesman Geoff Needham said: “This large animal although still alive and wallowing about, was unable to make for the deeper water. As the tide was dropping away nothing more could be done.”
“I understand that the experts were going to monitor it in the hope that it still might be saved. In the last few years we have had about half dozen such strandings in the Wash none have survived, the clean up bill runs into thousands, a very sad end to such a magnificent animal.”
Brian Long, portfolio holder for the environment with West Norfolk council, said specialist contractors would be brought in to cut up the carcase and remove the animal. He said the operation was unlikely to begin until Monday.
“It’s a terrible thing, we’d advise the public to keep away from it.” he said.
“They do attract a lot of attention, being such big animals, people do flock to look.”
