Giant 40-Foot Whale Washes Up On Essex Beach

A 40-foot whale has washed up on Clacton beach in Essex, UK, this morning:

Essex Police are now working with other organisations such as Big Blue Ocean Cleanup to come up with a way of moving the dead animal.

Part of the beach has been cordoned off to ensure people stay away from getting too close and officers have been encouraging individuals to continue to follow social distancing measures.

Essex Police posted on Facebook: "Sadly a 40ft whale has been washed up on Clacton this morning.

"We are currently in attendance with other organisations and discussions are under way on how to remove her. The area is cordoned off and the public are advised to stay away."

Facebook/Essex Police

A spokesman for Big Blue Ocean Cleanup told Mirror Online it is becoming increasingly common for whales to wash up on the UK's coastline due to infectious diseases, fishing nets and ocean plastic.

According to reports, the carcass was spotted at around 8am in shallow water. Dave Bolton described the scene as 'a very sad sight'.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Bolton said: "I was driving along the seafront when I saw lots of people looking over the railings, so I got out and saw the poor animal - it was a very sad sight indeed."

Resident Les Fensom said he understood the whale had been floating off the coast but "washed in on the tide and was now stuck around a groyne". "When the tide goes out it will be stuck on the sand, which won't be good."

This isn't the first time the body of a whale has washed up on a UK beach. Last September, a huge humpback whale was spotted on the shore in Northumberland.

Two humpback whales were sighted just before it was washed up and the person that found the creature told the Chronicle Live he believed it was one of those.

The number of whales and dolphins washing up on British shores is rising, according to experts.

A team from the Zoological Society of London say the deaths were due to a number of causes including plastic, fishing and diseases.

However, the experts are unclear why the number is rising, but think, again, it's probably down to a number of reasons, such as increases in whale and dolphin populations.

Speaking to the BBC Rob Deavill who led the study, said: "Strandings aren't actually in and of themselves bad news. There's a misconception that we're trying to stop strandings - we're not, we're trying to learn more about those that are due to human activities and then try and mitigate those where we can."

Topics: UK News, Essex, Whale, Animals

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

@RJShepherd94