Local fisherman Tony Edwards couldn’t believe his eyes when he trawled up a pair of whale vertebrae while trawling near the Eddystone reef in October 2014.

The bones were ‘still a bit stinky’ according to Tony, who thinks he must have run through the middle of a whole skeleton resting on the sea floor.

The bones, measuring 1ft 6ins wide and 1ft 10ins tall, were identified by the Natural History Museum as coming from a fin whale – one of the largest whales, but also one of the commonest in our area.

Rame Peninsula Beach Care arranged for the bones to be donated to Plymouth City Museum, where they will go on public display for all to see.

This was a second unusual haul for Tony, who the previous year hauled up an aluminium WWII German mine, which had to be detonated by bomb disposal experts off the Mewstone.