A dead porpoise has been discovered washed up on a beach.

The animal was spotted by a dog walker at Warden Bay in Leysdown on Sheppey on Friday evening (August 30).

The woman said: “My family and I were walking the dogs along when we saw what we thought was a large fish laying on the beach.

“On closer inspection we found it was what we believe to be a dead dolphin or possibly a porpoise.

“The tide was out and it was bloody so who knows how it got there but it’s really sad to find this on our beach.”

The dog walker, who lives in Minster, reported the incident to the Natural History Museum’s strandings team.

It investigates reports of stranded whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, large-bodies sharks and marine turtles found around the UK coast to support marine research.

Post-mortems can help identify contaminants, reproductive patterns, diet and are useful pointers to the general health of the populations living in the seas around our coasts. They can also help to detect outbreaks of disease or unusual increases in deaths.

Porpoises have a similar appearance to dolphins, but are more closely related to narwhals and belugas.

A Natural History Museum spokesperson said: “We did have a dead male harbour porpoise reported to us, seen at Warden Bay.

“It was in an advanced state of decomposition, so not suitable for post-mortem examination.

“Thanks to the members of the public who reported it, we have the essential what, where and when information about this stranding.

“We have recorded the details of this porpoise in the national strandings database.”

It is not the first time a sea creature has washed up on a beach in Kent in recent months.

In April a porpoise was found at nearby Shellness with its fins “cut off”.

In October, a porpoise washed up on Dymchurch beach, with another discovered in Ramsgate last March.

And just last month, a dead dolphin was discovered at Grenham Bay in Birchington-on-Sea.

Thanet District Council confirmed it was “monitoring” the situation.

Swale council has confirmed it removed the porpoise over the weekend.