A deceased dolphin was recovered from Penarth beach this morning.

Penarth lifeboat station received reports at approximately 9.30am.

The Coastguard attended the scene and have recovered the dolphin before giving it to the council.

The dolphin was two metres long and two members of the team entered the water to bring the dolphin ashore, to prevent any distress to the public.

"Unfortunately, this morning members of the public reported that a deceased dolphin had washed up on the beach," said Jason Dunlop, lifeboat operations manager for Penarth.

"With increasing numbers of people at the coast at the moment, people are seeing lots of things in the sea that they're not sure about.

"We'd encourage them to call the Coastguard to investigate anything they're not sure about, because it could have easily been a stranded dolphin needed to different care."

Jason said there was no indication of what caused the animal's death, but that the members of the public did the right thing.

"The important message is that the public did the best they could. If it was a situation that it could have been salvaged, the right people were called to deal with it," he said.

Penarth RNLI has experience rescuing stranded dolphins.

"They come up the channel, we've seen quite a few between the islands," said Jason.

"It is something that we're used to dealing with. They are beautiful animals."