A WIRRAL man has told how he rescued a baby porpoise as it was found washed up on New Brighton beach.

Darrell Church, from New Brighton, spotted the mammal beached on the seafront last week and immediately rushed to its aid.

The little porpoise had become stranded as the tide went out and found itself stuck on the sand.

But Darrell, 45, made sure the youngster was removed from harm's way and was released back into the water last Thursday.

He said: "I had not been home from work long and was standing on my balcony looking over the river when I noticed what I thought was a big cod on the waterline. I quickly got down to the beach and realised it was in fact a baby mammal.

"It was facing out towards the water so it looked like had been trying to swim back out but got stuck. I picked it up and walked into the river with it so it could go back out to sea.

"I'm quite certain it would have died if I hadn’t have spotted as the seagulls would have come along at any minute. I think it was just a case of being in the right place at the right time.

"It was nice to know that there are creatures like that in the River Mersey and to think that the water must be clean enough for porpoises to live and reproduce."

According to Merseyside Coastguard porpoises can often find themselves beached on the region's shoreline and they advise anyone who finds one to contact them and the RSPCA.

Coastguard officer Paul Harrison said: "We are only able to assist an incident like this if we are alerted to it so people can call us as well as the RSPCA if they find a porpoise beached.

"More people tend to see them in the summer months simply because more people use our beaches."