Moray Council to leave seven metre decomposing whale on Lossiemouth West Beach, tells public to keep away
A DECOMPOSING whale will stay on Lossiemouth’s West Beach, as Moray Council plans to “let nature or the tide take its course”.
Beachgoers and dogwalkers were urged to stay away from the seven metre carcass, which experts from the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) said was in too poor a state to identify a species.
The public were also asked to keep children and dogs away from it.
The council’s environmental health team were told about the dead animal, which it believes to be a minke whale, on Tuesday.
Removing the decomposing whale carcass, which is between the West Beach café and Covesea lighthouse, would be “extremely difficult” according to a spokesperson.
A lack of vehicle access to the beach and its soft sand were singled out as the key reasons for leaving the rotting animal in place.
Beverly Smith, Moray Council’s acting head of economic growth and development, said: “Moray Council's Acting Head of Economic Growth and Development, Beverly Smith, said: “While it’s a distressing sight to see we know that nature will take its course and the whale will eventually disappear.
“The difficulties in removing the carcass are numerous and it would be unsafe and impractical to do so.
“I echo the reminder from our Environmental Health team to avoid the area for the time being and to keep dogs and children away from the whale.”
The council spokesperson said it was likely the whale died from becoming entangled in creel lines.
The spokesperson added that environmental health teams will monitor the carcass.
Nick Davison, who is in charge of collecting dead stranded animals for SMASS, confirmed that the organisation had been told about the whale.
He added: “Unfortunately it was too decomposed for us to identify the species or examine the animal.”
