Whale beaches on storm-wracked Northumberland coast

While the north of England turns its mind to clearing up following the two-day deluge – coverage here - another possible victim of the weather has turned up on the Northumberland coast.

It is an eight-metre-long minke whale which has beached itself at Druridge Bay, scene of last weekend's mass naked swim which you can read about here or watch on a video clip here.

The whale was first reported earlier this morning by a walker who 'phoned the north east Coastguard. They sent divers and alerted the fire service for possible heavy lifting later in the day. A vet is treating the whale which is described as dehydrated, under-nourished and much thinner than normal for a creature of its size and estimated age.

Richard Stewart, the watch officer at Humber Coastguard says:

This morning at about 7.50am we received a call from a member of the public saying that she had come across a beached whale on Druridge Bay. Coastguard colleagues, divers, the fire brigade and vet are all there now. The whale is still alive.

Minke whales off the UK tend to be solitary or limited to small groups of two or three, usually staying within 40 miles (64.5kms) of the coast. Beaching is unusual but can happen in unusual weather conditions or when a whale becomes ill and disorientated or too weak to resist tidal movement.

Steven Marsh, operations manager at British Divers Marine Life Rescue based in Uckfield Sussex says:

This one has stopped eating for whatever reason - maybe it has a disease or parasite, or something in its mouth that causes problems with feeding. We won't know how best to care for it until the vet gives their assessment.

If the whale is thought capable of surviving, it will be relaunched on a PVC mat attached to pontoons for the ebbing tide to take it our to sea. But Marsh adds:

It hasn't got any muscle on it at all, and the last thing we want to do is put an animal back in the sea that's likely to suffer and come back again.

There's more about finding stranded marine mammals here and the long and complex history of whale beachings here. Animals incapable of reasonably rapid relaunch are treated humanely but are seldom capable of surviving.

Update 11.30am: Marsh says that sadly the whale is too sick to be relaunched:

They're attempting to euthanise it now using a drug that will put it to sleep. It was in a very poor shape and we don't re-float animals that would die if they were released out to sea.

The storm hasn't killed this whale, but it may have caused it to wash up on the beach. If there is a storm, sick whales are less able to fight it and are more likely to be swept on to beaches.



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