Moby Dick

Maritime salvage teams had a whale of a time last week trying to capture a 20-ton whale just 3 miles off the coast just south of Benidorm.

In an operation which put Captain Ahab's antics to shame, lasting from 5.30 PM until 9 o'clock, the two teams struggled to land the 16-metre mammal. However unlike Moby Dick, this whale was dead, and floating about in an extremely inflated condition playing havoc with the efforts of the local fishing fleet.

Anyway, after the mammoth effort, the giant corpse was handed over to scientists who are trying to discover the animal's cause of death.

20 March 2004 Stephen White.