A YOUNG porpoise was found dead on a beach this weekend.

Rebecca Warn from Lindfield near Haywards Heath was walking on Cuckmere beach with her five-year-old son and her father when they found the body.

Images show the mammal with gashes on its body and injuries to its mouth.

Rebecca said that at first, she thought it was a large piece of plastic before realising it was a carcass.

She told The Argus: “From a couple of metres away I thought it might have been part of a boat because it looked very shiny and plastic.

“But once we got close to it we immediately knew it was an animal of some sort.”

Rebecca reported the stranding to the Brighton Dolphin Project, a charity project of the World Cetacean Alliance.

Thea Taylor, Brighton Dolphin Project Co-Lead, said: "This porpoise looks to be a young adult judging from the approximate measurements given to us by the finder.

"It looks to have been in fairly good physical condition at the time of death but there are no obvious external signs of bycatch."

**All photos by Rebecca Warn**