40ft whale discovered on beach in Angus, Scotland *VIDEO*

STV 14 September 2012

A dead 40ft whale has washed up on a popular beach in Angus.

The sei whale is thought to have been discovered by a dog walker just after 8am near Arbroath Artisan Golf Club in Angus.

The whale has been confirmed by marine experts not to be one of the 27 pilot whales which washed up near St Andrews earlier this month.

A spokesman for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said: “We’ve got people out there investigating the whale and we would urge locals not to go rushing down there to try and take parts of the whale away because it is illegal and unsafe.

“A post-mortem will be conducted by the Scottish Agricultural College in Inverness tomorrow and the cause of death should be discovered in the next few weeks.

“After looking at the pictures we’re certain it’s a sei whale. We’re not certain at the moment, because it hadn’t reached full sexual maturity, but we think it was a female sub-adult.

“Looking at the measurements of the whale it is definitely not a calf and would not have been feeding from its mother anymore.”

“We are certain it’s not one of the pilot whales that were washed up at St Andrews a couple of weeks ago.

“A lot of Baleen whales are washed up on Britain’s shores all year round and until the post-mortem is conducted I cannot speculate on why this particular whale has died.”

A spokesman for Arbroath lifeboat said although they had not been officially involved, some of their staff had assisted in helping the BDMLR.

He said: “There was no formal lifeboat assistance, although a couple of the guys went down to the beach to help.

“There were initial worries that the whale would be taken back out to sea by the high tide and that would have posed a danger to fishing boats in the area.

“So the guys assisted the marine rescue team in dragging the whale higher up the beach to safety.”

A spokeswoman for Tayside Police said: “We were first alerted to the incident at about 8.30am and the environmental services in Arbroath will now deal with the situation.”

Baleen whales take their name from the baleen plates they use for filtering food from water, rather than having teeth. They usually feed on krill and small fish.

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