A dolphin found dead on a Great Yarmouth beach on Saturday is the first stranding of its kind since the 1960s.
Gorleston Coastguard went to the scene at around 9am on Saturday on the South Beach.
The Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) recovered the carcass today and have confirmed the species to be a Risso’s dolphin.
The CSIP described the stranding as “unusual”, as the creatures are normally found in deeper waters, and records indicate the last time the species was found dead on the southern North Sea English coast was the 1960s.
The dolphin is described as a juvenile male in thin condition, which the CSIP suggest may be linked to a nutritional loss suffered as a result of being out of habitat. A post-mortem will be carried out later this week to determine the cause of death.
It was previously thought two dolphins had been found dead on the beach this weekend, however, the CSIP believe it was most likely the same dolphin which had been washed further along the beach prior to collection.
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