Chesil Beach litter pick uncovers 'mer-chicken' skeleton
It's going on public display at Portland Museum
A routine beach clean at Chesil in Dorset has uncovered the skeleton of a so-called 'mer-chicken' - once thought to be a mythical creature.
It's been found by Dave, the co-founder of the Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project, who said:
“I thought it might just be another bird skeleton, washed up in a storm or caught in a net, but it clearly has a fish tail and an avian body. I’ve never seen anything like it! I knew about the Veasta sea monster, but I hadn’t heard of the Portland Mer-Chicken before, sounds bonkers."
It's been a part of Portland folklore for hundreds of years - part mermaid, part chicken.
The original Mer-Chicken was said to be enormous, appearing in 1457, on Chesil beach and crowing three times to each point of the compass, and then disappearing.
Dave says: “Portland’s a magic place, so I could see something like this lurking around. Who knows what’s down there! It’s silly to think we know everything about the ocean, around 80 percent of it remains unexplored, and deep-sea creatures are often much larger than those in shallow waters. I wouldn’t want to run into this little guys’ mum!”
The skeleton is now on public display at Portland Museum. They've said:
“When the Mer-Chicken was originally sighted, it was followed by huge bountiful harvest of fish. This recent find is clearly a sign that we should be protecting our magical island, and its waters!”