A whale has died after it became stranded off the coast in East Yorkshire.

The mammal was thought to be a male fin whale, which is the world’s second-largest animal after the blue whale.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue confirmed the 55ft (17m) whale died off South Beach, in Bridlington, at around 6pm yesterday.

BBC Look North’s environment correspondent Paul Murphy said fin whales are a ‘very unusual visitor’ to the UK and are ‘not suited’ to our shallow waters.

He said a team from the Zoological Society of London’s Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme will collect samples today.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council is responsible for disposing of the whale’s body.

The animal arrived at South Beach yesterday, and dozens of people were seen gathering to see it.

Mike Heslop-Mullens, the mayor of Bridlington, asked people to keep away while rescuers attempted to save it.

He said people ‘should treat it as an animal and not as something to gawp at’.

Jordan Grebby, from HM Coastguard, said it seemed the whale had got stuck on a sandbank.

Sometimes called ‘razorbacks’, the fin whale can grow up to 80ft (24m) and weigh up to 120 tonnes.

They can swim up to 45kph and are known as the ‘greyhound of the sea’. They can live until around the age of 100 and can be found all over the world, but mainly in cooler waters.

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