Beachgoers have been urged to stay away from part of the UK coast after a “rare” whale carcass washed ashore. The “large marine mammal” was spotted on Canvey Island in Essex this weekend and was later identified as a Sowerby’s beaked whale.
HM Coastguard Canvey advised locals to avoid the area and confirmed that a plan to remove the creature, which it said was “a rare sight on the Thames Estuary”, was underway. “The area around the whale has been cordoned off by colleagues from the local authority,” a spokesperson said. “We urge members of the public to not attempt to go near to the whale, as deceased marine mammals may carry disease.”
Castle Point Borough Council echoed the message in a post on social media. It read: “We are aware of a whale sadly deceased on the beach on Canvey Island.
“[The council] and specialist agencies are managing the recovery process. Public are advised to stay away from the scene.”
Sowerby’s beaked whales are typically native to the North Atlantic and Baltic Sea, and can reach a maximum length of 5.5 metres, weighing up to 1,300kg, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation.
Rob Deaville, project manager at the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP), told the BBC: “CSIP are aware of this – it’s a Sowerby’s beaked whale, which is a deep diving species and relatively unusual stranding for England and Wales, so very much out of habitat in the Thames Estuary.
“We normally record roughly two Sowerby’s beaked whales a year on our patch, and the last one we had a report of in the Thames Estuary was on the north Kent coast in 2010.”
Mr Deaville added that the CSIP was working with the Port of London Authority “to see if [the whale] can be recovered from its current location and moved to a more suitable location to allow a necropsy to take place”.
Rebecca Harris, Conservative MP for Castle Point, also alerted constituents to the issue in a post online.
“I was deeply saddened to hear [a] deceased whale was found washed ashore on Canvey seafront,” she wrote. “It is always very sad to hear that such a magnificent creature has died … Please continue to keep a respectful distance while work is carried out.”
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