Dead whale washes up near Edinburgh harbour after floating past Forth Bridge

Members of the public were seen observing the huge deceased mammal, which was photographed by several onlookers at Newhaven on Sunday.

The whale, believed to be a humpback, was spotted earlier in the day near South Queensferry in front of the Forth Bridge.

As the tides shifted, the carcass has since floated east and was spotted beached near Newhaven Harbour. Reports said the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) has confirmed it is aware of the deceased mammal.

Generally, it is up to the local authority to make arrangements for the removal of an animal carcass.

The dead whale joins a list of many other sea mammals washed up on Scotland’s shores. Earlier this summer, a mass stranding of 77 pilot whales was discovered on a beach in Orkney. It is thought to have been the biggest mass stranding for decades.

The pod was found on Tresness Beach on the island of Sanday.

Sightings of humpback whales in Scotland are becoming more frequent, experts have said. The clampdown on hunting whales is said to be one of the reasons for the “overspill” of humpbacks to the UK’s coastline.

Dr Kevin Robinson, director of the Cetacean Research & Rescue Unit, also cited warmer seas as a reason and “the rich productive waters to the north and north-west of Scotland, which provide a suitable habitat for the magnificent whales, which we expect to encounter more and more of”.

There are about 135,000 humpback whales globally, according to NatureScot. A report in the Nature journal said the population plummeted to 1,400, or even lower, in the 1960s. But as the species makes a slow recovery, an increase in human activity at sea over time has presented the mammals with a new problem – entanglement.

SMASS director Dr Andrew Brownlow previously told The Scotsman injuries from netting were common in larger, washed-up marine life, and there had been a “clear increase in the number of entanglement cases” over the years.

A report released in December last year found “considerably more whale entanglements occur in the Scottish creel fishery than previously thought”.

The study, which included authors from the University of Glasgow, said estimates of six humpback whales and 30 minke whales – the latter being the most common species of the baleen whale seen off Scotland – become entangled each year.

SMASS and researchers, however, have said there has been a positive, active engagement from Scottish creel fishermen to tackle entanglement cases.