The whale was first sighted on the beach at around 7pm on Wednesday having previously been seen floating in the sea near Cambois
Northumberland County Council has issued a warning after a dead whale washed up on Newbiggin-by-the-Sea East Beach. The whale was first sighted on the beach at around 7pm on Wednesday having previously been seen floating in the sea near Cambois.
Northumbria Police has confirmed that it had an officer on the scene on Thursday afternoon, as the force aimed to keep the public away from whale, due to the bacteria on it posing a significant health risk. Now, the local authority has shared its own plea to the public.
A spokesperson for Northumberland County Council said: “We have been made aware of a whale which has been washed up on the coast at Newbiggin.
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“The ‘Receiver of Wrecks’ has been notified due to the breed of the whale. If visiting the beach, members of the public are being asked to keep clear of the remains until they have been safely disposed of.”
A dead whale has washed up on Newbiggin East Beach. Police are in attendance to stop the public getting too close, no cordon is currently in place.(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
The ‘Receiver of Wrecks’ is an official who is appointed to handle the disposal of this kind of animal, and the matter has now been passed on to the team which will safely deal with the whale’s remains.
Mark Southerton, chief officer at Northumberland Inshore Fisheries and Conservation (NIFCA), previously said that one of the organisation’s vessels had been alerted to the whale on Wednesday afternoon.
He said that there were no signs of any entanglements in fishing equipment on its tail or pectoral fins, and that the whale appeared to have been dead for some time when it was sighted.
Richard Martin, a volunteer at Newbiggin RNLI, said that the smell of the whale was “obnoxious.” This isn’t the first whale to wash up on a Northumberland beach, with at least three in the summer of 2021.
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