A dolphin died after becoming stranded on the beach near Weston-super-Mare.
Emergency crews were alerted after members of the public spotted the dolphin still alive on Sand Bay Beach on Sunday morning.
Crews from Weston-super-Mare Coastguard Rescue Team and BARB Search and Rescue marine specialists raced to help the stricken mammal.
The six-foot common dolphin had washed up on the high tide and was stranded several hundred metres from the top of the beach.
Two coastguard technicians walked across the mudflats to the dolphin with water and a blanket to keep it wet and assessed its condition.
Crews cared for the dolphin while waiting for British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) specialists to arrive as dolphins are recognised as ‘royal’ mammals.
It had initially been showing signs of life, with air being blown through its blowhole.
Experts inspected the dolphin but were unable to save it due to the amount of time it had been out of the water.
The dolphin, weighing around 200kg, was taken off the beach and securely packaged by the BDMLR team ready for a possible post mortem examination.
A spokesman for Weston Coastguard Rescue Team said: “Sadly on this occasion it was not possible to save it due to the amount of time it had been out of the water.
“The dolphin was securely package for transportation by the BDMLR while they attempted to contact the Natural History Museum, as they will likely wish to perform a post mortem to try and determine how and why it ended up where it did.
“A very sad end to our first callout of the year.”
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The Bristol Channel has a resident population of harbour porpoises as well as being visited by various species of dolphin.
Porpoises were spotted a number of times last year in the channel around Clevedon.
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