DESPERATE boffins are trying to discover why dozens of mutilated seals are washing up on British beaches with their skin horrifically ripped off.

All the seals suffer the same wound — a single deep cut from head to stomach — but the top scientists can't work out what's behind the damage.

Horrific ... the seals have had their skin slicedUniversal News And Sport

Science sleuths have been hunting for the 'murder weapon' since the first seals started dying last year, but they are still clueless. Now they are appealing to Sun readers to see if you can solve the mystery.

Horrified scientists have found around 60 carcasses so far. Most of the seals were spotted off the Norfolk coast, but ten more have been discovered at St Andrew's on the east coast of Scotland.

Mechanical

The cut goes all the way around the seals' bodies from head to stomach like a CORKSCREW.

Professors have so far eliminated sharks, tidal power generators and ordinary boat propellers from the list of suspects — but they have no idea what else could have caused the injuries.

The search is now on for a mystery vessel that could have inflicted the mechanical wounds.

Top mammal scientist Callan Duck told The Sun: "It's a very clean cut - it looks like one single cut. If you're cutting a loaf of bread, there's a sawing action and you leave jagged edges, but there are none of those, so it looks like one continuous movement.

"The skin has been ripped clean off the seals' jaws. It would take hours to do that with a scalpel yourself."

The clever animals have learnt to avoid swimming too close to ships, leaving Mr Duck's team puzzled that they seem to have swum into the blade HEAD FIRST.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3101146/The-mystery-of-mutilated-seals.html#ixzz0x1FPuLSK

The injuries bring to mind getting twisted in some rope that then is pulled at great force.

You never heard this from me....magnetohydrodynamic drive.

Regards.

ooh thats awful and looks terribly painful for the poor animals

sounds like big propellers of some kind

looks like this manatee but on a much larger scale

http://www.ngsprints.co.uk/North-America-Animals-Marine-Mammals-Manatees/c1_2_77_79/p118743/Art-print:-Manatee-Carcass-with-Slice-Marks-from-Boat-Propellers./product_info.html

New fangled Subs with sonar attracting the poor things...................as a guess