on your morning constitutional.
This magnificent creature was washed up over night on the beach just down the road that I take a walk along most days.
It’s a Minke whale Sei Whale (edit: see below) and I didn’t know you get them around here, never seen them before or I didn’t think I had, it’s funny you see things out there in the sea and just dismiss them as a wave, while hoping to see dolphins frolicking about out there.
Certainly the biggest thing I’ve seen washed up here, the odd bottle nosed dolphin and seal being the only other larger animals. Mostly it’s jellyfish and those numbers have been all over the place this summer
. One day there’s over 100 lion’s mane washed up, next day there’s none, next there’s a couple.
Edit:
According to the experts it’s not a common or garden Minke whale but at 12 metres or about 40 feet it’s the bigger member of the baleen whales the far rarer and endangered Sei. Just didn’t feel it was 40 feet long when I saw it and looking at the photos, quick stride out today says the experts were right.
They think it might be the same Sei whale that was spotted beaching itself down the coast a bit a few days back. They don’t know what caused it to beach, if it just died of natural causes or something caused it. Looking at such things as a sea quake off Norway, solar flares and offshore windfarms.
