Sad ending as washed-up whales are taken from Skegness to Sheffield landfill

Contractors clear away the dead 48ft sperm whales that were washed-up on a beach near Gibraltar Point in Skegness

Three dead sperm whales which washed up on the coast around Skegness have been removed in a five-hour operation.

A team of 14 workers started the process just after 8pm on Wednesday.

The whales, believed to weigh around 30 tons, were found on the beach at the weekend and are believed to be part of the same pod as others found in Hunstanton, Norfolk, and Wainfleet, Lincolnshire.

Contractor Jan Smith had said he expected the job to take up to eight hours but it was smoother than expected, finishing at 1.30am.

He said: “It’s gone very well really. The last one where the flaps had been cut open for the autopsy was hard work.

“You can’t really plan what you are going to do because you don’t know if they are likely to blow up or something. All that you can do is treat them with the utmost respect.”

Hundreds of people have been to see the whales in the town since they were discovered.

Workers spent Tuesday moving the creatures and covering them with sand before their removal. The whales were then put on to low loaders, wrapped in a tarpaulin and taken to a landfill site in Sheffield.