On 21March British Divers Marine Life Rescue was contacted by the HM Coastguard about a stranded sperm whale on the shore close to the village of Sutton Bridge, close to the Norfolk, Lincolnshire border.

The area, at the bottom of the Wash, is shallow and treacherous with soft mud and extremely fast running tides and when BDMLR National Coordinator, Lucie Kirk arrived at the scene she found the animal difficult to reach about half a mile off the sea wall across a salt marsh.
She confirmed the whale was alive and appeared to be in good health and so the decision was taken to attempt a refloat. Nothing like this had been attempted in the UK before. It was, from the start, an audacious plan. Sperm whales are deep water cetaceans and are not found in the North Sea let alone the Wash which is littered with sandbanks and shallow water. However, the animal was strong and looked in reasonable shape, if perhaps a little underweight, after examination by RSPCA vet, Steve Bexton, so a rescue team consisting of two BDMLR Rescue RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats) and several specialist Marine Mammal Medics was called upon.

The whale stranded on the highest spring tide, which made matters worse for the rescuers as each successive tide would be lower and lower, making a refloat a difficult proposition, but undaunted by the challenge the rescue workers set about the task.

When the rescue team arrived and was able to make it out to the whale it found the animal on its side, yet fighting to regain an upright position. The creature’s efforts were a welcome sign as it showed the bull sperm whale had plenty of strength. After sitting out of the water for several hours, large cetaceans, in particular, (also seen in small cetaceans) suffer deep muscle damage and organ failure, which reduce the likelihood of survival on refloating.

As the water level came close to high tide there was enough depth for the whale to finally right and hold itself upright in the water. Unfortunately, it still had its back protruding from the surface and its weight and size held it on the bottom unable to move.
The second rescue boat carrying BDMLR Vet James Barnett arrived soon afterwards and the decision was taken to try and encourage the animal into deeper water. It was upright and able to move its tail, but showed little interest in moving so the BDMLR team resorted to slapping the animal to ‘gee’ it into action, which got the desired reaction. The whale started to move. Slowly it inched away from its position, but progress was incredibly slow and the light was fading.

Eventually the local RNLI inshore lifeboat requested we give up for the night. It was a sad moment to leave the whale knowing it would spend a second low tide on the sand and would, if it survived the night, be in a weakened state and on a lower high tide the next day.

The BDMLR team retired to a local Little Chef, which given the late hour on a Sunday night and the number of people, did an exceptional job of feeding us. The next door Travelodge also deserves special mention for accommodating us on a greatly reduced price and allowing us to email pictures to keep the world’s media updated.

At 4am the next morning, after a few hours of snatched sleep, the rescue team launched the two RIBs and headed out in the growing light to find the whale.

It was still high and dry and the team had to walk the boats towards the shore in the advancing water to reach it.
As it lay there on the sand, mouth agape it looked as if had passed away in the night, but it moved its tail. James Barnett also checked the whale’s eyelid and pectoral withdrawal reflexes and both seemed good for an animal that had sat out of the water for two tides. Its mucus membranes were also becoming congested which suggested he was becoming compromised. When he breathed, with the water just lapping around his head, a gush of spray from the blow hole was heartening to see.

As the whale felt the water encircling its forlorn body it became more animated and started to move its tail and its breath sent a great spray of water outwards. The breathing rate though stayed fairly static at 4 per minute, which was another good sign. Rescuers immediately started to splash its dry body with water to dampen the dry skin and this too seemed to revive it more.

The team now had to decide how to go about trying another refloat. There was little we could do while the water was still low, so we waited and watched as, with more water covering its body, the whale fought to right itself.
At 12 metres long, the whale weighed around 15 to 20 tonnes and was impossible to move. BDMLR has specialist cetacean refloating equipment, but it is designed for smaller cetaceans such as minke and pilot whales, which are a fraction of the size. A sperm whale is just too big and too heavy to be able to assist.

The state of the tide was also against the team and whale. It was only a few centimetres lower than the previous high tide, but that was enough to prevent the animal, in its weakened state from righting itself. The team tried to sling a net between the two rescue boats and lift the whale free of the seabed, but this proved logistically very difficult and besides there just wasn’t enough water. The team tried to find a solution to the problem, but there was nothing that could be done in such shallow water. We had to contend with the fact it was going to end up high and dry again.

The boats returned to port as the tide began to drop and the rescue team moved to the shore to keep the animal as comfortable as possible for the rest of the day. By now though it had already been decided that the kindest thing we could do was to put the whale down and arrangements were made with Dr Paul Jepson, veterinary pathologist and head of the UK Marine Mammal Strandings Programme, to bring the necessary drugs from London to put such a large animal to sleep. No one wanted that to happen, but the whale was simply going to suffer greatly as it wasn’t going to get off the sand.

From that decision the operation changed from being a rescue to keeping the animal comfortable. However, at around 11am, the whale had had enough and passed away. Actually it is the best thing that could have happened. None of the rescue team wanted to see it put down, but we hated to see such a magnificent creature suffer so much.

It was in the wrong place completely. There is little food for it in the North Sea and so even if it had managed to navigate the sand bars of the Wash, it was still a weak creature in a hostile environment.

Paul Jepson arrived at around 2pm, He is contracted by the UK government to perform autopsies on dead cetaceans that are on the shore
Time was of the essence as the tide had turned and was now coming in. Paul and an assistant, went out to perform the autopsy. He was accompanied by myself, an RSPCA inspector and Duane Kirk a BDMLR medic and RNLI volunteer.

Various samples were taken including, skin, blood and stomach contents. The whale was measured and its blubber thickness taken. The results are not known at present, but from the blubber thickness, Paul deduced that the young male was rather thin, probably from not being able to feed while in the North Sea.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue learned a lot from the operation to try and save the Sperm whale. It’s rescue team worked incredibly hard in some horrendous conditions. With some further research and planning, perhaps we will be luckier with the next one.

BDMLR would also like to thank the crew of the dive boat Wreck Hunter for its assistance, the crew of the local inshore RNLI lifeboat, the HM Coastguard, the RSPCA, the Police and the Harbour Master at Sutton Bridge.