A dead dolphin has been washed up on a beach.

Kent Wildlife Rescue Service was alerted to the body on Sheerness Beach, near Marine Parade, yesterday morning (April 6).

WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS BELOW

The Sheppey Coastguard and the beach management warden contacted the charity at around 9am.

Lorraine March, who runs the rescue and is also a member of British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), said: “It weighed around three-quarters of a tonne, so we needed plenty of bodies to move it off the beach.

“We had to roll the animal onto a very large tarpaulin and then carry it up the beach, up onto the promenade and into a BDMLR van.”

It had been removed from the beach by around 1.30pm and it was then driven to the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) where a necropsy will take place.

Lorraine explained: “It will be about a week until we find out the cause of death.

“It was a white -beaked dolphin which normally comes from the North Atlantic Ocean, so it was a rare sight for it to be here.”

Volunteer Vivien Smith added: “It was a very sad sight. Even with 12 of us, it was incredibly heavy, and we struggled.”

A spokesperson for BDMLR said: “We received a report of the deceased white-beaked dolphin at Sheerness to our rescue hotline and one of our medics, along with assistance from the public, recovered it on behalf of the Cetacean Stranding Investigation Programme (CSIP).

“CSIP will collect the body today and take it to the ZSL to perform a post-mortem to determine the cause of death.”

The ZSL and The Natural History Museum have been approached for comment.