Sheringham: Dead whale found washed up on Norfolk beach

A dead sperm whale has been found washed up on a north Norfolk beach.

The body of the 32ft (10m) juvenile was discovered lying on rocks near Sheringham on Tuesday.

According to Norfolk Cetaceans, the young whale is believed to be part of the same pod of that stranded on the Yorkshire coast on Christmas Eve.

It is the third sperm whale found along the Norfolk coast this winter. The others were sighted at Weybourne and in The Wash at Snettisham.

Speaking about the Sheringham sighting, Rob Deauville, of the UK Strandings Investigation Programme, said on Twitter: "Given the condition, possibly one of the animals lost to the tide over Christmas at the mass stranding site."

Carl Chapman, a whale expert from Norfolk, said it was rare for sperm whales to enter the shallow waters of the North Sea but there had been a proliferation of squid in 2020.

This could have tempted the whales into chasing them into the southern North Sea.

Mr Deaville has been examining the stomachs of two of the whales from the Yorkshire coast pod.

He said the stranded pod was the "largest sperm whale mass stranding event documented in England and second largest in the UK over the last century".