Porpoise washed up on beach following humpback sightings in Firth of Forth

A dead porpoise was found washed up at Bo’ness foreshore on Friday morning after humpback whales were spotted swimming in the Firth of Forth last week.
The dead porpoise was spotted 400 yards east of Carriden Boatyard in Bo'ness by a local resident (Photo: Graham Thom).The dead porpoise was spotted 400 yards east of Carriden Boatyard in Bo'ness by a local resident (Photo: Graham Thom).
The dead porpoise was spotted 400 yards east of Carriden Boatyard in Bo'ness by a local resident (Photo: Graham Thom).

The dead porpoise was spotted 400 yards east of Carriden Boatyard in Bo'ness by local resident Graham Thom who was walking along the John Muir Way on Friday February 5 at 10am.

Mr Thom said the creature was still there when he was walking in the area yesterday morning and was left wondering if its death was related to the humpback whale sightings.

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The creature which is around 5 foot was reported to lie near the Bo’ness waste water treatment facility behind the sea wall and officials have said the cause of its death is not yet known.

There was no obvious sign of trauma on the creature (Photo: Graham Thom).There was no obvious sign of trauma on the creature (Photo: Graham Thom).
There was no obvious sign of trauma on the creature (Photo: Graham Thom).

Falkirk Council has located the carcass and are in the process of removing it.

They hope to have this completed by early this evening.

Mr Thom who used to be a forest ranger said: “I’ve never seen anything like that down there before- there’s hardly any wild life other than birds on the beach these days.

"I’ve never been up close to one and it was surprisingly large.”

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"It was definitely a porpoise as the dorsal was triangular and it didn’t have an elongated snout.”

“With the whale activity, I don’t know if it may have been related to that.

"There was no obvious sign of trauma- it didn’t have any propeller injuries or anything like that.

"There were old scars but they get scratched on rocks but there was no recent injury which would suggest the cause of death.”

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The incident was reported to the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme who monitor all marine mammal strandings around the Scottish coast.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The cause of death is unknown.

"However, harbour porpoise are regularly stranded around Scotland’s coast, with 132 animals reported to SMASS in 2019.”

News of the aquatic mammal’s death comes after large humpback whales were spotted in the Firth of Forth last week.

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Local whale watcher, Lyndsay McNeill told the Evening News that several humpbacks arrived in the Fife and Lothian areas on Saturday morning.

She said: "They have been here between January and March since 2017 and will stop off the way to breeding grounds or will just stay around and fish here.”

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