THE carcass of a dolphin has been removed from a beach after being washed ashore.

The mammal was seen being washed ashore on Worthing beach and council staff removed it two hours later.

It is the third time in just over a week that a large dead marine mammal has been spotted on the Sussex shoreline, after two porpoises were found in Brighton and in Seaford.

Sarah Ward, a marine biologist at the Sussex Wildlife Trust said it had likely been washed ashore by recent storms.

She told The Argus: “I’d say we can be reasonably certain this one is a dolphin not a porpoise because it has such a large dorsal fin, but it’s hard to be completely sure because it’s in such a sorry state.

“It is a bit weird to have three found in such quick succession, but then we have just had a spell of bad weather and that’s reflected off-shore too, so this is probably to do with the storms.

“Given the state that it’s in it looks like it’s been dead for a while.”

She said it was impossible to speculate why the dolphin died.

Keith Knight, a retired Metropolitan police employee, watched the animal being washed in on the waves from his flat in Balcombe Court at 8.30am on Monday.

The 53-year-old said: “I didn’t know whether it was a dolphin or a porpoise, but it was easily six or seven feet long, it was bigger than I am. It was interesting and a bit sad”

When he walked to the shoreline to investigate he saw no bite marks on the creature to explain why it might have died.

Two hours after the creature was spotted on Monday Adur and Worthing council staff cleared the carcass from the beach.