AR-News: (UK) Beached whale dies on sand bank

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lincolnshire/3557431.stm 

Beached whale dies on sand bank

 
The 15-tonne whale was beached near Sutton Bridge
A 36-foot-whale caught on a man-made sand bank in The Wash in Lincolnshire 
since Sunday morning has died. 
Volunteers worked for more than a day to try to free the whale, but failed to 
budge the 15-ton animal. 
The whale died just before noon on Monday, a rescue spokesman said. 
Inspector John Bow of the RSPCA said earlier: "It was a deepwater animal and 
shouldn't be there, it had obviously lost its way." 
Rescuers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue Team, based in Uckfield, 
East Sussex, had resumed efforts to free the 15-ton animal from a sand bank at 
Sutton Bridge in The Wash shortly before the 0700 GMT high tide. 
"We were not really equipped to lift an animal of that size so it was really 
a last-ditch attempt," said Alan Knight from the rescue team. 
The whale was spotted by a member of the public at about 10am on Sunday. 
It is not known how it came to be on the bank. 
It might have become stranded due to ill health, or it could have been 
confused by the sand banks and shallow water of the The Wash. 
Volunteers spent Sunday trying to keep the whale upright so its lungs did not 
collapse under its own weight. 
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