Whale washes up dead on beach

A whale which had been spotted off the UK coast has been washed up dead on a beach, according to police.

The northern bottlenose whale, nicknamed Gilbert after Nick Gilbert-Smith, a RNLI lifeguard who first spotted it, was seen off Bournemouth beach and in Poole bay on September 13 and had been sighted several times off the Dorset coast since.

A spokesman for Dorset police said the whale was washed up on a beach in Bournemouth last night.

He warned members of the public not to go on to the beach out of fear the mammal had a contagious disease.

The spokesman said: "Unfortunately Gilbert the bottlenose whale has been washed up on a beach in Bournemouth and is dead.

"Officers from British Divers Marine Life Rescue are with the whale and a marine biologist will be attending in the morning.

"They request that members of the public do not attend the beach as it is not known at this stage if Gilbert died of any contagious diseases."

Fears for Gilbert's well-being had been expressed because the whale would not be able to feed in the area.

The whale would normally travel around Scotland and the west coast where it would have access to its normal food source of squid.

Without this food it was feared it would starve and dehydrate.

Sue White, of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, said that the northern bottlenose could have become dehydrated without water from the squid.

She said it was not known why Gilbert was in the area and that he might have taken a wrong turn into the Channel.

She added: "It is very unusual to have a northern bottlenose on the south coast.

"The northern bottlenose are deep divers and they get the water they need from the squid they eat and can get dehydrated without that."

Ms White added that the BDMLR had received an increase in reports of northern bottlenose whales stranding or coming close to the UK shore.

She said the organisation, which began in 1988, had not received any reports prior to the whale that swam up the Thames in January 2006 but had since received about eight to 10 reports of sightings or strandings. She added: "We do not know why this happens, they may have taken a wrong turn, it may be there are more of them since whaling was restricted."

Jenny O'Connor, Dorset co-ordinator for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue said she was called after someone reported what appeared to be a dead dolphin in the surf at Alum Chine, Bournemouth.

"I came down here, waded out in about four feet of water and found the whale, and then I realised it was the northern bottlenose whale that we had been watching for the last week and, from the bad rope burn around the top end of the beak and other marks on her, it looks like she had been caught up in some sort of net.

"Until the pathologists later on today do an autopsy, I can only speculate that she drowned."

Pilot and minke whales are more common sights in the Channel, as well as dolphins and seals.

This 6.4-metre northern bottlenose - the same breed as was found in the Thames in January 2006 - is a rarer visitor, Ms O'Connor said. "Normally they would be found off the west coast of England, migrating south this time of the year," she said.

The whale's body has been cordoned off and covered with blue sheeting. People were asked to keep children and dogs away because of bacteria on the carcass.

The BDMLR has been studying the whale's movements since she was first spotted on September 13. They initially thought it was a male but found out yesterday it was a female.