A young whale has been found dead on a Scottish beach.
The juvenile mammal was spotted by a dog walker after rescue attempts failed.
Lyn Murray saw a crowd around the animal stranded on the beach near Musselburgh when she was walking her dog at around 2pm on Tuesday.
The office worker, from Musselburgh, said it was devastating to see the beached whale.
She said: “It was heartbreaking. It looked like a young whale, I am not sure what type it was. It’s tragic. The seas have been quite angry and the tide has been high so I don’t if that has anything to do with it."
Lyn said the whale was at the point where the Brunstane Burn and the Forth converge, near the mussel sculpture by Michael Johnson.
She added: "I saw people in the distance and when I got closer, I could see the whale just lying there. It must have just died as the body was fresh and had not been lying there for ages.
“It is such a shame. One of the divers that there were said it was pretty young. I am down in that area of the beach a lot and I have never seen anything like that before. I am sure it must have had something to do with the seas being so high lately.”
Last year, a humpback whale washed up dead on an East Lothian beach last week had “been entangled in rope for several weeks if not months”, marine experts have confirmed.
The 30ft-long whale was found at John Muir Country Park, near to Tyninghame, and was moved by Dunbar RNLI to Skateraw, near Torness Power Station, for an autopsy to take place.
