Large whale washed up onto Sussex beach
30/08/2008 12:34:38
Decomposed whale on Eastbourne beach
August 2008. A large and very decomposed whale has been washed up on a beach in Eastbourne, Sussex. The body is in an advanced state of decomposition and approximately 6 metres in length.
Cetaceans can be divided into two types - toothed or baleen. This carcass appears to be a diving baleen species of whale. However the whale has been dead for a considerable period of time, and there is no way of identifying the species as it is so decomposed.
English Channel cetaceans
It is not uncommon for Cetaceans like Common Dolphins and Bottlenose Dolphins to frequent the English Channel this far up on the Sussex Coastline. It is possible that this whale died hundreds of miles away and not off the Sussex coast and that the body has been washed along with the tide.
Courtesy of British Divers Marine Life Rescue
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