Three dead minke whales found dead on Suffolk coast sparking fears giant sea beasts were killed by wind farms
The carcass of a 30ft long adult female minke whale washed up in Felixstowe, Suffolk
A TRIO of whales have died after apparently becoming confused and swimming into shallow waters off the Suffolk coast.
The carcass of a 30ft long adult female minke whale was washed up on Saturday night on the beach around 200 yards south of the pier in Felixstowe.
A second dead minke calf was beached around ten miles away on a mudflat in the River Ore near Orford.
Last night a coastguard spokeswoman confirmed that a third adult whale had been spotted at sea on Saturday around 20 miles offshore from Felixstowe.
She said it was believed that the third whale would sink and it was not expected that it would come ashore.
The whale on the beach at Felixstowe - which is thought to weigh about five tonnes - was cordoned off as crowds gathered to get a glimpse of it.
Council officials will bring in a specialist company to either tow it out to sea or cut up the carcass and remove it.
Experts from the Natural History museum are due to carry out post-mortems to establish how the two beached whales died.
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John Cresswell , chairman of the voluntary Felixstowe Coast Patrol Rescue Service, said he believed that the whales were from the same pod.
He added: "This is a really sad day. I have worked as a volunteer coast guard for twenty one years now and never seen anything like it.
"Sometimes whales can't get very good sonar transmission near mud banks, which means they end up at shore."
Mr Cresswell said he believed that vibration from offshore wind turbines could have contributed to the whales becoming confused and unable to communicate.
He added: "These creatures are beautiful and we need to do something to stop this."
Car valet worker Robert Gregg, 47, of Felixstowe first spotted the whale on the town’s beach at around 11.30pm on Saturday.
He said: "It had a wound on its side which was a few feet long. It looked like it might have been hit by a ship."
This week a mysterious sea creature the size of a cargo container washed up on a beach in Indonesia was finally identified – proving web experts wrong.
The colossal beast, which was found at Hulung Beach on Seram Island last week, was initially believed to be a giant squid - but it's actually a sperm whale.