RECEIVER OF WRECKS
The government has a department called ‘Receiver of Wrecks’ based in Southampton, which is part of The Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Anything found washed up on a beach should be reported to the Receiver of Wrecks, which decides whether to allow “finders keepers” and generally makes a judgement on how best to deal with the item/s.
I was unaware of this two weeks ago. I know now, because a 15ft Minke Whale was washed up on a beach near my mother’s house. Apparently, the environmental health department believe the whale may have been injured by shipping. Its presence was notified to the RoW and a decision was made to cover the decomposing whale carcass in tarpaulin and leave it to rot.
The whale was not found in on a straight stretch of coastline, nor was it washed up in a bay. Nope, it was found in a cove. Coves being coves, the whale was difficult to recover: it was impossible to transport lifting gear to the site, and the tide failed to shift the mammal. So there it is – a decomposing whale.
The country is much better than metropolitan life. But maybe that’s just because I don’t live there.
The government has a department called ‘Receiver of Wrecks’ based in Southampton, which is part of The Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Anything found washed up on a beach should be reported to the Receiver of Wrecks, which decides whether to allow “finders keepers” and generally makes a judgement on how best to deal with the item/s.
I was unaware of this two weeks ago. I know now, because a 15ft Minke Whale was washed up on a beach near my mother’s house. Apparently, the environmental health department believe the whale may have been injured by shipping. Its presence was notified to the RoW and a decision was made to cover the decomposing whale carcass in tarpaulin and leave it to rot.
The whale was not found in on a straight stretch of coastline, nor was it washed up in a bay. Nope, it was found in a cove. Coves being coves, the whale was difficult to recover: it was impossible to transport lifting gear to the site, and the tide failed to shift the mammal. So there it is – a decomposing whale.
The country is much better than metropolitan life. But maybe that’s just because I don’t live there.
