Dead sperm whales are being washed ashore along the coast of Ireland and Russia may be to blame.

Increased Russian submarine activity in the Atlantic could be threatening the creatures as Vladamir Putin continues his invasion of Ukraine.

Sperm whales, along with cuvier’s beaked whales, are among the deepest-diving species of whales. They can descend up to depths of 1.9 miles and hold their breath for around four hours.

Unfortunately, this puts them at the same depth as the sonar used by submarines.

The whales are frightened by the powerful sonar bursts and attempt to escape to the surface.

However, if they surface too quickly, they fall victim to decompression sickness (known as ‘the bends’ where nitrogen molecules accumulate in the blood and cause blockages or clots) and die.

Marine biologist Sean O’Callaghan posted images of the carcasses to Twitter, writing: ‘Dead deep diving whale species have been washing into the west coast of Ireland in recent days.

‘The three big storms last week have brought them ashore but they have been dead for well over a week to 10 days if not longer and more might make landfall.’

KendalHZ60, who has only been on Twitter for a month, added: ‘The second set of sonar from the Russian sub causes massive haemorrhage in the whales, causing a dispersal AND masks the sounds of torpedo doors opening, the water jet, the kick-start of the thermal-high compression engine, etc.

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