Warning as 'rare' whale washes up on beach

People are being urged to stay away from a beach in Essex after the carcass of a "rare" whale has washed up.

HM Coastguard Canvey said the "large marine mammal washed ashore" at Chapman Sands on Canvey Island on Saturday.

The dead mammal was identified as a Sowerby's beaked whale, which the coastguard said was "a rare sight on the Thames Estuary".

Writing on Facebook, Castle Point Borough Council said: "We are aware of a whale sadly deceased on the beach on Canvey Island. [The council] and specialist agencies are managing the recovery process. Public are advised to stay away from the scene."

HM Coastguard Canvey said its rescue officers and colleagues from Southend-on-Sea had passed on information to "the relevant agencies to arrange for removal".

"The area around the whale has been cordoned off by colleagues from the local authority," it wrote.

"We urge members of the public to not attempt to go near to the whale, as deceased marine mammals may carry disease.

"A plan is in place to remove the whale over the weekend."

Sowerby's beaked whales can reach a maximum length of 5.5m (18ft) and weigh up to 1,300kg (2,866lb), according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

They typically live in deep waters in the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea hunting squid and small fish, meaning they are rarely spotted in the North Sea.

Rob Deaville, project manager at the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP), said: "CSIP are aware of this - it's a Sowerby's beaked whale, which is a deep diving species and relatively unusual stranding for England and Wales, so very much out of habitat in the Thames Estuary.

"We normally record roughly two Sowerby's beaked whales a year on our patch, and the last one we had a report of in the Thames Estuary was on the north Kent coast in 2010."

He said his organisation was working with the Port of London Authority "to see if it can be recovered from its current location and moved to a more suitable location to allow a necropsy to take place".

Rebecca Harris, Conservative MP for Castle Point, shared a photograph of the beach and said she was "deeply saddened to hear [a] deceased whale was found washed ashore on Canvey seafront. It is always very sad to hear that such a magnificent animal has died".

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