WALKERS discovered the body of a pilot whale — stranded off the cliffs in the West Wight.

The pilot whale corpse was found partially decomposed and littered with plastic bottles, on the beach at Shepherd's Chine.

Kim Brown, an admin on the Isle of Wight Nature group on Facebook, sought out and reported the discovery after photos of it were posted on the group page.

A stranding, or a beaching, is when sea creatures mistakenly find themselves stuck on land, usually resulting in death.

Kim said: "I have found several porpoises and a dolphin in the same locality in recent years but seeing the pilot whale saddened me greatly.

"The sheer size of her and her resting spot being littered with plastic really bought it home how we are polluting the oceans.

"Plastic, the supertrawler, dredging the area, ropes and nets washed up near her — all combined to give me a sense of unease of the direction humanity is heading in.

"Without a post mortem we do not know what caused her demise but it is unusual to find a pilot whale on the shoreline here."

 

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