These are the shocking images of a dead grey seal that drowned after it had become tangled is a mass of plastic waste and ghost fishing gear.
The British Divers Marine Life Rescue unit were called out by concerned members of the public who spotted the mammal off the coast near Boscatle, Cornwall, earlier this month.
Members of the public spotted the struggling seal on May 11, but the rescue operation could not launch until the following morning due to the sea conditions.
A dead hmpback whale was washed ashore at Scrabster, Caithness this morning
This seal, pictured, was trapped by 35kg of ghost fishing nets before its body was washed ashore on Trebarwith Strand in Cornwall
A post mortem of the seal's body found it would have taken the animal three weeks to die
The fishing net cut through the seal's neck slicing through its flesh down through to its muscle
A team of volunteers went out searching for the seal on May 11, but were unable to find it as it had been washed away on the tide.
However, on May 27 the seal was found washed ashore a few miles down the coast at Trebarwith Strand.
The BDMLR were involved in the search along with the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust.
Later, the BDMLR were joined by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network (CWTMSN).
The volunteers took photographs of the stranded seal who suffered terrible injuries as a result of its efforts to free itself from the fishing gear and plastic rubbish.
BDMLR's North Cornwall Assistant Coordinator Michelle Robinson-Clement, who was part of the original search team, said: 'This animal suffered a prolonged, tortured death, there is no question of that. He is one of the worst cases of entanglement we have seen anywhere in the world due to the extreme nature of his injuries. The material that was taken off him weighed 35kg – he wouldn't have been able to swim or dive.'
His body was retrieved by CWTMSN volunteers the following day and taken for a post-mortem examination at the University of Exeter's Cornwall Campus in Penryn.
Pathologist James Barnett claimed the animal would not have been able to raise its own head or even feed
The seal, pictured, got trapped in this 35kg length of plastic fishing net
Animal welfare experts said the seal, pictured, would have died in agony
The examination showed the net caused a massive wound
