Graffiti has been sprayed onto the corpses of two sperm whales who were among those washed up on the Lincolnshire coast at the weekend, sparking outrage that the animals' bodies have been desecrated.
Anti-nuclear messages have been written on the dead bodies, including "CND", "Fukishima RIP" (sic), along with "Mans fault" (sic), and "Fukishima man killed me" (sic). Security guards are now reportedly standing guard near the corpses in order to prevent further graffiti and the scavenging of whale parts.
Along with spelling mistakes and poor grammar, a graffiti artist also incorrectly drew the CND logo on one whale's fin, producing the Mercedes symbol instead.
Brian Long, from King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council, said that security guards are needed to stop trophy hunters hacking off body parts. He said: “We don't want to see people scavenging, as it has happened before' adding the animal's skin, blubber, teeth and blood will be tested to establish its cause of death before being cut 'section by section' and removed by specialists.”
One of the bodies was discovered on Skegness beach at about 6.30am on Sunday and two others were found a few miles away at about 8.30pm on Saturday. It is believed that the three whales found this weekend are from the same pod as a whale that died in Hunstanton, Norfolk, on Friday.
An autopsy of the whales, carried out by the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, is due to take place today. It remains unclear why the whales beached and there are reports that a fifth corpse was found on Monday just a few miles from Skegness.
It is believed that the latest whale deaths could be connected to fatalities in Germany and the Netherlands in recent weeks. Dr Peter Evans, director of the Seawatch Foundation, told the Eastern Daily Press: “They feed on squid and what’s probably happened is that squid came in and the whales fed upon them but ran out of food.
“The further south they got the shallower the water gets and when they got to Norfolk, which is very, very shallow, it’s quite difficult to navigate and they tend to lose their way and actually strand.”
Article continues below pictures:
Graffiti messages sprawled on dead sperm whales
Many people have been left "sickened" that the whales' corpses had been desecrated.
While others have been left confused at the choice of messages sprawled across the bodies, including a mix-up between the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament symbol and the Mercedes logo.
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