At Porlock Weir to see the gigantic spring tide, I did not expect to find the skull of a fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus). Sea-bleached and battered, it lay next to a pile of logs a little above the high‑water mark.
At first, I thought it was merely a lump of old plastic, perhaps a polythene barrel twisted out of shape by winter storms. It had something of the yellowy‑whiteness and sculptural, moulded contours of injected polystyrene.
