Body of rare whale washed up on beach
THE body of a rare whale measuring more than five metres long has washed up on a beach in Porthcawl.
The northern bottlenose whale is usually found in deep ocean trenches and only seen in British waters off the north-west coast of Scotland.
But this whale was found by walkers on Sker beach near Porthcawl on Sunday.
The Sea Watch Foundation’s marine mammal strandings coordinator for Wales, Rod Penrose, took samples for DNA testing and said: “Due to the state of decomposition together with extensive scavenger damage of the carcass I was unable to determine the cause of death.”
It is thought the dead whale was a young whale.
The species is expected to live for 40 to 50 years and lives off deep water squid, deep sea fish, herring and shrimp.
Northern bottlenose whales have extremely bulbous heads with a protruding “bottle-shaped” beak similar to that of a bottlenose dolphin but are much larger than their dolphin counterpart.
This is the third time such a whale has been spotted on the Welsh coast.
The first was a 6.7m live stranding in Tenby, Pembrokeshire 20 years ago and the second was a 6.21m female in slight decomposition which washed up in Prestatyn.
Scientists at Sea Watch said this is an indication of the wealth of wildlife off Welsh shores.
The research charity has also recently reported on sightings of pilot whales in the same coastal area as well as in other locations around Wales.
Three species of dolphin are also regularly being seen in these waters along with the diminutive harbour porpoise, which is the smallest of UK cetaceans.
The most famous bottlenose whale is the “Thames Whale” – a female measuring 5.85m – which found its way into the River Thames in London around 10 years ago but died following a failed rescue attempt.
Earlier this year the Thames Whale was commemorated with a march.