\n Wirral Coastguard were called to New Brighton this morning (March 30) after receiving reports of a stranded marine animal off Harrison Drive.\n<\/p>\n
\n The “amazing creature”, identified by its markings as a common dolphin, was confirmed deceased by officers upon arrival.\n<\/p>\n
\n Wirral Coastguard said it is one of several recent strandings along the coast, describing the incidents as \u201calways sad to witness\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n The dolphin was found by members of the public and declared deceased by Wirral Coastguard (Image: Wirral Coastguard)\n<\/p>\n
\n Deceased dolphins are legally classified as Royal Fish, meaning they are afforded special status and must be reported and managed appropriately.\n<\/p>\n
\n Details of the dolphin have been passed to the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP), who may be able to use the dolphin’s remains for marine research.\n<\/p>\n
\n This is the 70th incident the Coastguard has attended so far in 2026. A statement was issued thanking the members of the public who reported the discovery.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a post on social media, Wirral Coastguard said: “The team tasked this morning to reports of a stranded dolphin off Harrison Drive, New Brighton.\n<\/p>\n
\n The dolphin washed up on the beach near Harrison Drive (Image: Google)\n<\/p>\n
\n “Sadly, on arrival the animal was confirmed deceased. We\u2019ve seen a couple of similar strandings recently which is always sad to witness.\n<\/p>\n
\n “These amazing creatures are not something we ever like to see in this situation. From its markings, this appears to be a common dolphin.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Many people may not realise that the Coastguard are often called to marine animal strandings.\n<\/p>\n
\n “HM Coastguard is called to stranded or deceased dolphins because they are legally classified as \u201cRoyal Fish\u201d, meaning they are afforded special status and must be reported and managed appropriately.\n<\/p>\n
\n The dolphin was found by members of the public and declared deceased by Wirral Coastguard (Image: Wirral Coastguard)\n<\/p>\n
\n “Details have been passed to the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP). As the dolphin is in relatively good condition, it may be collected to support ongoing research into our marine environment.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We have placed Coastguard tape on the dolphin to indicate it has already been reported and assessed, should it move with the tide or be encountered elsewhere along the coastline.\n<\/p>\n
\n “If the animal had been alive, specialist assistance would have been requested from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), who are trained to assess and respond to marine mammal strandings.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Thank you to those who reported this to us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wirral Coastguard were called to New Brighton this morning (March 30) after receiving reports of a stranded marine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-504085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}