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

The dead porpoise was spotted 400 yards east of Carriden Boatyard in Bo'ness by a local resident (Photo: Graham Thom).

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 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.

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).

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.”

"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.