Sperm Whales

Oneputt
Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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edited January 2016 in Wildlife, Nature & the Great Outdoors #1

4 sperm whales spotted off Hunstanton last night sadly looks as though one has beached on some rocks

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  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,592 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #2

    Looks like your title might need a little amended, Oneputt. We're a bit sensitive on the subject.Happy

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited January 2016 #3

    Is this the reason why Cardiff is the unmarried mother capital of the UK?

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #4

    Predictive again - Mod can you please change title

  • Bugs
    Bugs Forum Participant Posts: 480
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    edited January 2016 #5

    Hi Oneputt - title amended!

    Cheers

    Bugs

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #6

    hi Bugs thanks for that, didn't want to upset anyone.  Apologies to our members living in Wales

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #7

    Looks as thought the other 3 Whales of the pod found dead on Lincolnshire coast

    http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/environment/three_more_whales_found_dead_in_lincolnshire_believed_to_be_brothers_of_whale_stranded_at_hunstanton_1_4390867

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,040 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #8

    A very sad story, such magnificent creatures. 

  • HelenandTrevor
    HelenandTrevor Forum Participant Posts: 3,221
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    edited January 2016 #9

    Very sad, such a shame wonderful creatures. 

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,592 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #10

    Why do we still allow countries to get away with killing these wondrous creatures? "Taken for research" say Japan. Baloney says I.

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #11

    After all these years you would have thought if there was any scientific value it would have been collected.  I believe this is just an excuse to continue the slaughter.  I know that some Inuit people are allowed to catch a limited number of (4) whales per
    year, they do it in rowing boats with hand held harpoons

  • Kerry Watkins
    Kerry Watkins Forum Participant Posts: 325
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    edited January 2016 #12

    This is so sad for such beautiful creatures.

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #13

    A desperately sad event, unfortunately happening in other places around the North Sea coastline in recent weeks. Why?Frown 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
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    edited January 2016 #14

    A desperately sad event, unfortunately happening in other places around the North Sea coastline in recent weeks. Why?Frown 

    The research people are taking samples from the Whales to try and answer that very question.

    EDIT From the BBC News page :- "The Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme will examine the bodies". Hope they will be able to come up with some answers.

  • PATMAU
    PATMAU Forum Participant Posts: 250
    edited January 2016 #15

    So sad, beautiful creatures.  Didn't take long for people to rush to the beach to take selfies from the pictures in today's DM. 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
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    edited January 2016 #16

    Another one has been found on the beach near Skegness today. So sad.Sad

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #17

    A number have been beached in European countries recently.  The idea of taking a selfie with a dead animal I find repulsive 

  • Pliers
    Pliers Forum Participant Posts: 1,864
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    edited January 2016 #18

      The idea of taking a selfie with a dead animal I find repulsive 

    Totally agree. What on earth would you do with the "selfies", who would want to see them ? Repulsive indeed.

  • DSB
    DSB Club Member Posts: 5,666 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #19

    Really sad to hear the recent news stories about the whales.  Apparently those found recently on UK beaches are all from the same group.  Sad.

    David 

  • PATMAU
    PATMAU Forum Participant Posts: 250
    edited January 2016 #20

    Not only people taking selfies which I find abhorrent, but spraying them with graffiti as well.  What CND has got to do with dead whales beats me.  Call themselves concerned environmentalists, they are warped.. 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
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    edited January 2016 #21

    A number have been beached in European countries recently.

    They were saying tonight that a total of 17 have been beached recently here and along the European North Sea coastline. It would appear that they are starved, and hence suffering from thirst too, as Sperm Whales feed at great depths & when they get into
    the relatively shallow North Sea there's not the quantity of food available for such a huge creature.

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited January 2016 #22

    I went to Skegness yesterday to pay my respects to those beautiful creatures - I am glad to say everyone else there was very respectful too.  I definitely didn't see any taking selfies!  But one man kept pushing a WPC who was trying to keep him and his camera away.  They were covering two with sand as I was there which I suppose will be a protection against all scavengers.  I also have no idea really what CND has to do with it - and why daub the poor magnificent creatures with that messaga.  Grrr!  I hope they find out the cause of the tragedy. 

  • Janny
    Janny Forum Participant Posts: 62
    edited January 2016 #23

    There is a picture on face book were a man is trying to take a tooth out of one of them , how sad !

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited January 2016 #24

    Glad to say three have been removed and last night the guy in charge of the operation spoke with great sensitivity and respect for the creatures.  The picture of the "snout" that had been cut in pieces by a scientist sickened me - no doubt they have to examine
    the beasts but leaving sawn off bits seems unnecessarily macabre.  Frown

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited January 2016 #25

    Yes Pip, I saw the piece too. He did speak with great respect re the Whales, then went on to say they will be transported to Sheffied for dumping into a landfill site, as much as it was the truth & no other options available it seemed a very sad end & quite
    ignominiousSad

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited January 2016 #26

    It almost seems a waste sending them to landfill. I know we aren't Inuit but one wonders if, since the poor creatures had died anyway, the carcases could not be utilised in some way. 

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited January 2016 #27

    CY, the local plod had a word to camera regarding potential Scrimshaws who'd been liberating teeth overnight. He pointed out that anyone caught removing anything would be jailed-no ifs or buts. . . .Jailed. No wonder Scrimshaw carries a hefty price tag.

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #28

    No idea how a local Bobby can decide the punishment!  My solution would be to take back out to sea and let nature take its course

  • Pippah45
    Pippah45 Forum Participant Posts: 2,452
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    edited January 2016 #29

    They did mention that Oneputt but they were deemed a hazzard to shipping?  I didn't think they were that big but being a total landlubber I wouldn't argue.  I would have thought nature would take it's course quite quickly.  There were certainly a huge number
    of "official" looking people hanging around - must have cost a fortune. 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
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    edited January 2016 #30

    No idea how a local Bobby can decide the punishment!  My solution would be to take back out to sea and let nature take its course

    I think that the problem of taking them out to sea is the logistic effort required to do that, and then they'd have to be taken a long way out to stop them being washed back inshore.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
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    edited February 2016 #31

    Have just heard that the Whale that was washed up last night near Hunstanton has just died. What a great shame. That's now 29 that have been found on the North Sea European beaches this winter. The experts seem to think that they are all young males from
    the same superpod, but are at a loss to explain what they are doing in the North Sea.

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