A YOUNG porpoise had to be put down after it washed up on Stevenston beach last week.

Early on Wednesday morning, the baby mammal was discovered by Stevenston local Hugh Donaldson who tried to help the stricken creature to get back into the water.

Hugh told the Herald that he first spotted it shortly after 7am and that he refloated it twice from the sandbank at Ardeer Point (pictured) but it came back to the beach on both occasions.

Hugh had also contacted the Coastguard who put him in touch with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) team and he waited until volunteers arrived to attend to the stricken creature.

The local BDMLR attended quickly after the alert was sent to their mobiles and did everything they could but the best option for it to stop suffering was to euthanize and this was done by a vet who attended the scene.

The stranding was reported as a baby blue whale. It was found to be in a poor state of nutrition and other wounds were visible to the medics that responded.

The porpoise will have a full necropsy performed on it by SMASS. (Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme)

BDMLR are on call 24hrs a day 365 days a year to attend strandings of seals, porpoise, dolphin and whales as well as other marine life

Jo Collins, one of the volunteers, told Hugh: “Thank you for caring enough and trying to help the porpoise.

“Unfortunately the porpoise had previously sustained life threatening entanglement

injuries and had to be put to sleep to prevent further suffering.”