Attempts to rescue a minke whale off the Angus coast ended in failure at the weekend.
A specialist whale disentanglement team was summoned from John O’Groats after a fishing vessel reported seeing the 20ft mammal trapped by fishing gear on Friday.
Due to treacherous conditions the search was stood down and HM Coastguard received a second call at around 8.30am on Saturday from a trawlerman who had seen a whale carcass floating in the water.
Gareth Norman, Tay and Forth coordinator of the Broughty Ferry-based British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) team, said the whale had been caught in ropes used for lobster pots.
“We had reports from one fishing vessel, via the coastguard, saying they had seen a whale tangled up with trailing ropes,” he said.
“We have a specialised team to deal with whale rescues so we made contact. There is just one team that serves the whole of the UK and they had arrived and were ready to go out.
“Unfortunately the weather was quite severe and even if they had managed to get out and find the whale, it would’ve been quite a treacherous situation.”
The whale was first spotted on Friday at around 2pm in an area known as Red Head to the north of Arbroath.
Its remains are expected to wash up on the shore in the next few days.
Mr Norman added: “Sadly these incidents are becoming more common in the UK due to people discarding nets and other debris left floating in the water by the likes of oil supply vessels.
“We are not 100% certain it was the same animal but it is looking that way.”
BDMLR is a voluntary network of trained marine mammal medics who respond to call-outs from the public, HM Coastguard, the police, RSPCA and SSPCA.
It was also involved in the rescue effort on Sunday when there was a mass beaching of pilot whales in Fife.