{"id":136886,"date":"2025-05-27T21:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136886\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T21:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:11:11","slug":"portstewart-strand-dead-minke-whale-on-north-coast-beach-removed-and-disposed-of-national-trust-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136886\/","title":{"rendered":"Portstewart Strand: Dead minke whale on north coast beach \u2018removed and disposed of\u2019,\u00a0National Trust confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

A minke whale has beached and died at Portstewart Strand in Co. Derry. The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) said it happened on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

Photo by Jonathan Porter\/Press Eye<\/p>\n

A dead minke whale that washed up at a beach on the north coast has now been \u201cremoved and disposed of”, the National Trust has confirmed.<\/p>\n

The Department for Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) previously promised to remove the dead mammal as soon as possible after it appeared on Portstewart Strand<\/a> on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

A makeshift cordon was erected around the carcass which lay just metres from the main entrance to the beach which is owned by the National Trust. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A minke whale has beached and died at Portstewart Strand in Co. Derry. The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) said it happened on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

Photo by Jonathan Porter\/Press Eye<\/p>\n

Watch: Minke whale washed up on Portstewart Strand <\/p>\n

In an update, a spokesperson for the conservation charity said: “On the evening of 25 May 2025, we became aware of a dead minke whale beached at Portstewart Strand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was reported to DAERA and we worked with a range of agencies and marine mammal experts to follow protocol, removing and disposing of the whale this afternoon (27 May).<\/p>\n

“It was important that this removal happened as quickly as possible as decaying marine mammals pose a serious health risk as they can carry a range of diseases that are transmissible to humans and dogs. “<\/p>\n

Minke whales are one of the smallest species of baleen whale and can grow up to around 33 feet in length.<\/p>\n

They are regularly seen off the Northern Ireland coastline.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A minke whale has beached and died at Portstewart Strand – Photo by Jonathan Porter\/Press Eye<\/p>\n

On Monday, members of the public were pictured milling around the cordon, some taking selfies with the dead animal in the background.<\/p>\n

The National Trust spokesperson warned the public not to get close to carcasses. <\/p>\n

“If you spot a dead marine animal, please keep your distance and report any strandings to the DAERA Marine Wildlife Team Cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (daera-ni.gov.uk),\u201d they said. <\/p>\n

Minke whales have a lifespan of 50 years and can usually be seen in waters around Northern Ireland between the months of July and October. <\/p>\n

They can come ashore for many reasons, including injury, illness, bad weather and navigational errors leading them into shallow water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A minke whale has beached and died at Portstewart Strand in Co. Derry. The Department of Agriculture, Environment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[23668,1817,23669,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-136886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-department-of-agriculture","9":"tag-derry-news","10":"tag-environment-rural-affairs-daera","11":"tag-northern-ireland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114581856974391834","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}