The whale carcass is being removed from Ballymacormick Point, between Ballyholme beach and Groomsport
A dead whale has washed up on the shoreline near Bangor in County Down, leading to the closure of access paths to Ballymacormick Point.
The National Trust restricted access, saying the carcass posed a safety risk.
“Given the difficulty of the terrain and size of the whale, this is a challenging removal process,” it added.
It comes two days after two dolphins were rescued and helped back into the water after they became stranded near Castle Espie on Strangford Lough.
A female common dolphin and her calf were spotted lying in thick mud on the shore on Thursday morning.
Image source, Helen Beattie
Volunteers photographed the scene as the rescue began on Thursday morning
A ranger at Castle Espie wetland reserve called for assistance and soon a vet and a team of volunteers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) arrived at the scene.
One of those who answered the call was BDMLR volunteer Ruby Free from Portglenone in County Antrim.
She told BBC News NI that the vet was the first rescuer on the scene and she covered the stranded dolphins with wet blankets to prevent them drying out.
“She did a really good job of that, and then the rest of us turned up and we were just trying to keep the dolphins wet until basically the tide came in a little further, because by that stage it was still hundreds of meters out,” Ms Free said.
About an hour later, the BDMLR team, including Helen Beattie, Josh Anderson and Ingrid Houwers, attempted to re-float the dolphins in the rising water.
Image source, Helen Beattie
BDMLR volunteers Ruby Free and Josh Anderson with the stranded dolphin
“The way you do that is you get a tarpaulin,” Ms Free explained.
“You have to dig a little bit under the dolphins’ bodies, put the tarpaulin underneath, really delicately roll them onto it before you slide them out into the water.”
However, she stressed that BDMLR medics are trained in this procedure and it should not be attempted by untrained members of the public with any wild animal.
Image source, Helen Beattie
The dolphins were showing signs of eye damage after being stranded
“We made sure that the calf was positioned in front of the mum, so the mum would follow behind and encourage it out, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” Ms Free said.
“When we let go of the mother and calf the mum had a lot more strength and the calf, unfortunately, was still being pushed back onto the sand bank because of the strength of that tide.”
The calf was “really struggling” in the shallow water and was soon showing showing signs of fatigue.
If the team had “just allowed it to carry on fighting the tide relentlessly, it might have actually been a lot worse for the little dolphin,” Ms Free added.
“So we managed to get hold of the calf again and actually walked it out into much, much deeper water, and held it for about 20 minutes before it could get enough energy to try again.”
When the volunteers felt the calf was strong enough to swim, they released it again and it was soon reunited in the lough with its mother.
“It was a brilliant, brilliant sight to see,” Ms Free said.
Ruby Free said the rescue team felt “proud and happy” after the dolphins returned to deep water
She described it as “an incredible group effort” and praised her fellow rescuers for their quick thinking and “muscle power”.
“It took a few of us to hold dolphins each, and then you have also the coastguard team who were looking after us looking after the dolphins,” she said.
“And then you have the guys at Castle Espie that actually made the initial call that made all of this happen in the first place.”
Posting on its Facebook page, the Portaferry Coastguard Rescue Team said both dolphins were “observed swimming into the distance and were are pleased to say they should make a full recovery”.
Ms Free said the rescuers were happy not to have seen the dolphins for more than 24 hours, but were still concerned that they might become stranded again.
“Please keep your eyes peeled around the waters of Strangford Lough, If you see these dolphins in trouble again, or any marine life in distress please call BDMLR on 01825 765546,” she added.
