Gruesome discovery on North Coast beach

A BEACH walker has made a distressing find ***WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE***

Jonathan Miller has warns surfers after discovering a dolphin with huge shark bites washed up on new Brighton beach

AN OCEAN Shores man is warning surfers of his gruesome discovery of a dolphin with "massive shark bites" at New Brighton beach.

Jonathan Miller's beach walk came to a grisly halt when he stumbled upon the 2m dolphin with about six bites "at least 30cm long".

He made the discovery just before 6am on Tuesday when he saw a young woman looking quite distressed trying to care for the dolphin which had washed up on the unpatrolled beach.

"It was clearly already dead," Mr Miller said.

"I'm convinced it was a shark or many sharks, and surfers need to beware.

"Most of the surfers are well aware of the risks and happy to take them. It was pretty shocking and just shows that we share the ocean with many wonderful creatures."

Jonathan Miller has warns surfers after discovering a dolphin with huge shark bites washed up on new Brighton beach

The day prior, Mr Miller said his friend was surfing at the same spot and was adamant she saw a shark fin.

"She said the fin was static and not moving like a dolphin," he said.

"She got out of the water immediately."

He said there was always the possibility the dolphin died of natural causes before the attack, and had since heard it had been initially hit by a boat, as it had propella wounds on its back.

"I think it was buried later by a digger," he said.

"I phoned Seabird Rescue and they told me the council would end up moving it eventually and it could go to Sea World for scientific research and get some DNA samples.

"I don't know if that was carried out, but Seabird did make those calls."