Dolphin washed up on Sand Bay beach near Weston-super-Mare

Specialist teams worked to rescue a dolphin after it became stranded on a North Somerset beach.

The Weston-super-Mare coastguard and BARB Search and Rescue were called to Sand Bay beach at 11.30 on Sunday (3 January).

The six foot common dolphin was stranded several hundred metres from the top of the beach.

Before marine life specialists arrived, the emergency rescue teams tried to revive the mammal by keeping it covered in a wet blanket.

However when the British Divers Marine Life Rescue team arrived they concluded the creature would not survive because of the amount of time it had been out of the water.

A spokesperson for BARB Search and Rescue said: “It had initially been showing signs of life, with air being blown through its blowhole, but sadly it was declared deceased during the incident. A sad ending for such a wonderful creature."

The marine medics removed the dolphin from the beach and said they will attempt to contact the Natural History Museum to perform a post mortem to try and determine how and why it washed up on the beach.

The emergency services also praised the member of the public who called them when they found the creature and said they made "absolutely the right call" by dialling 999 and asking for the coastguard.

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