Three whales were found dead on the River Ore in Felixstowe, United Kingdom last Saturday afternoon. They were found by residents and rescuers who came to the area to examine the dead whales.
In a video footage published in BBC, the three minke whales looked like they have been disoriented by the wind farm as they were washed up dead off the coast of UK. The first dead whale was seen on a mudbank in the River Ore.
In the article published by The Times, the coastguards received reports from residents of Felixstowe that a minke whale calf was separated from its mother by Friday night. By the next afternoon, this whale was found dead and it is more likely for its mother to be washed up near Felixstowe.
The day before this incident, another dead adult whale was seen off the coast of Harwick, Essex. People are speculating that they have come from from the same pod, which could mean that an entire family was lost in the sea.
John Cresswell, one of the members of the Felixstowe Volunteer Coast Patrol Rescue Service, said it was normal for other sea animals like porpoises to wash up on their coast. However, he considered it as "odd" and "rare" for whales to be washed up on their coast.
"This is a really sad day as I have worked as a volunteer coast guard for 21 years now and never seen anything like it," he said. Moreover, he said that whales and other sea creatures should be protected from accidents like this and people should act up.
Cresswell also thinks the deaths of these whales could be playing on two possible factors. The first one is one the poor sonar transmission and second is the wind turbines.
"Sometimes whales can't get very good sonar transmission near mud banks, which means they end up at the shore," he said. In the factor of wind turbines, he said that whales could not be able to communicate to each other properly when people are using the wind turbines.
Currently, there is an estimated number of 800,000 minke whales in the whole world. Their average life expectancy is 50 years old.
Cresswell said that the council officials of the area are currently planning to call a special company that would dispose of the dead whales. This would include towing the animals out to the sea and let it die in nature. It would seek evaluation though as there are fears that this process would be detrimental to the resident fishermen.
