A young humpback whale has washed up dead on a beach in Scotland after apparently becoming tangled in rope.
The whale, which measured nine foot in length, was discovered yesterday on the coast of John Muir Country Park in Dunbar, East Lothian.
Local authorities have said that a postmortem still needs to be carried out, but the whale’s length would suggest it is a juvenile.
“The level of decomposition is slight, it is considered to be relatively fresh so it probably died within the last two hours or so,” said a spokesperson for East Lothian council.
“There was a whale spotted in the Firth of Forth near Fife that appeared to have a buoy tangled up. This one appeared to have been tangled with some ropes.”
East Lothian Countryside Rangers have also urged the public to stay away from the site until the whale carcass can be removed.
Unfortunately there is a dead humpback whale at Tyninghame. Whilst we appreciate people are interested to see it we do ask that you stay back from the carcass for health and safety reasons. We are aiming to remove it from the beach later this evening. pic.twitter.com/wya4INmRlR
— ELC Countryside Rangers (@ELCrangers) April 23, 2019
“Unfortunately there is a dead humpback whale at Tyninghame,” they wrote on Twitter.
“Whilst we appreciate people are interested to see it we do ask that you stay back from the carcass for health and safety reasons. We are aiming to remove it from the beach later this evening.”
This comes six months after a sperm whale was found dead with nearly 6kg of plastic in its stomach.
The whale was discovered off the coast of Indonesia last year with 115 plastic cups and 25 plastic bags inside of its body.
Flip flops, plastic bottles, rope, and pieces of tarpaulin were also found inside of the whale’s stomach.
Feature image via Twitter.
