A DEAD dolphin washed up on Penarth beach this morning, and was recovered by volunteers from Penarth lifeboat station, alongside coastguards and Vale council officers.

Penarth RNLI received reports of the deceased dolphin at around 9.30am, and it was removed from the beach shortly afterwards.

The coastguards attended the scene and recovered the dolphin before giving it to the council.

The common dolphin was around two metres long and two members of the team entered the water to bring it to shore, to prevent any distress to the public.

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Lifeboat station manager Jason Dunlop said it wasn’t unremarkable to see dolphins wash up on the beach, and praised the public to alerting the station and coastguards to the issue so quickly.

“The important message is that the public did the best they could. If it was a situation that it could have been salvaged, the right people were called to deal with it,” he said.

“They come up the channel, we've seen quite a few between the islands. It’s a shame this one couldn’t be saved.

“It is something that we're used to dealing with.”