Onlookers and rescuers found three baby sperm whales dead on a beach near Skegness in East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. Experts say the whales may have gotten lost.
One of the whales was discovered at around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, while the two others were found just a few miles south at about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Scientists from the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) will perform the postmortem examination of the whales.
The three whales are believed to be part of the same pod, or group of whales, as the the other sperm whale that was discovered on Friday at Hunstanton. The said whale was about 45 feet long and weighed approximately 30 tons. Workers went out to rescue the whale but unfortunately, it did not survive.
"This large animal was unable to make for deeper water. As the tide was dropping away, nothing more could be done," says Geoff Needham, a spokesman for the Hunstanton Lifeboat Station.
The CSIP obtained samples of the whale's skin, blood, teeth and blubber.
Meanwhile, the location of the rest of the pod is still unknown.
Sperm whales are deep-sea species that cannot survive in shallow waters for long. The animals are said to become disoriented easily in such areas.
Sea Watch Foundation director Peter Evans says the whales found in Skegness are probably adolescents that encountered a squid and fed on it. The whales may have lacked food thereafter, causing them to swim farther down south to the shallow waters of Norfolk.
"The general consensus is that it's a pod that has got lost and they've become unstuck through stress meaning that, unfortunately, they have beached themselves," notes Sam Rees of Skegness Aquarium.
CSIP program organizer Rob Deauville says the incident is unusual. The group documents and investigates marine animal strandings all over the UK. As per their data, sperm whale strandings are not typical.
"Every year we get 600 strandings of cetaceans in the UK and a handful, about five or six a year, are sperm whales," he says.
CSIP also notes that the number of marine animal strandings in the UK has risen over the last 25 years. The data are consistent with reports from other countries, including the United States. In 2010, 33 pilot whales were found dead on an island off the Donegal coast in Ireland.
Experts say climate change due to the utilization of underwater sonar is among the practices that international studies have identified as a causative factor.
