THE whale which had to be put down after straying hundreds of miles off course and beaching on the banks of the River Orwell is expected to be moved by crane today .

By John Howard

THE whale which had to be put down after straying hundreds of miles off course and beaching on the banks of the River Orwell is expected to be moved by crane today .

Rescuers battled in vain to save the six-metre Northern bottlenose on Friday night, but it was put to sleep soon after first light on Saturday.

It was the same species as the whale which died after swimming down the Thames last year.

Ipswich Borough Council is expected to remove the whale - dubbed George by rescuers - from an area near the Orwell Bridge today. It will then be taken to a large carcass disposal unit in Essex.

Marine experts spoke of their sadness at the weekend after the desperate rescue attempts failed. The drama gripped the area and saw scores of people line the banks of the Orwell.

Volunteers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue group had battled for hours to help the whale find deeper water.

In the end, its fate was sealed when it became trapped in shallow waters on the Orwell Country Park side of the river.

Medics monitored it throughout Friday night and after dawn it was given powerful sedatives. It died at about 6.30am.

Trevor Weeks, national coordinator of the BDMLR, said: “It's a very sad outcome. About 1.30am the animal beached itself in shallow water and as the tide has gone out the animal was left high-and-dry.

“At about 5.15am a veterinary team managed to get all their gear to the animal and that's when they started the process of putting it to sleep.

“These types of whale are not very well studied and a post mortem examination will be tried, although it may not be feasible on this occasion.”

Michael Durrant, an angler from Ipswich, was among the crowds who turned out to see the whale and said: “It kept coming closer and closer to shore, at one point you could see it just ten yards away. It kept spraying water and sounded like it was crying. It had enough strength to swim around and it did start back towards the Channel one time. It was huge, a big old thing.

“It was so sad that they had to put him down. I wanted to jump in and help, it was so close. I come down here nearly every day and you just do not expect to see it here in Ipswich. I have never seen anything like this before, although I have seen the odd seal.”

Experts said the whale had probably begun his journey off the coast of Norway and turned into the North Sea by mistake instead of heading past Iceland and the Faroe Islands. It was probably meant to be north of Scotland.

The whale was the latest in a series which had died after being spotted off the east coast of England. As well as “Wally” the whale in the Thames Estuary last year, two had arrived off Skegness, in Lincolnshire. All of the whales died.

n For more pictures of the whale and rescue attempt, see www.eadt.co.uk.