Two people strolling along the beach at Burnham Marshes stumbled across a dead porpoise.

Friends Jon Greaves and Angela Gardner, both from Southminster, found the carcass of the Harbour porpoise on the beach on April 3.

Mr Greaves believes the porpoise they found was about two or three years old because it was only four feet long.

He said: “I guess anyone would be sad to find a dead whale of any type and we certainly were.

“Porpoises are quite rare around this part of England.”