A POD of around 50 dolphins has been spotted off the North-East coast.

Four friends who were taking photographs along the coast near Sunderland, on Monday, spotted the group, believed to be bottlenose dolphins, in the water at around 12.30pm.

The Northern Echo Camera Club member Mark Beadle, of South Shields, said: “It was amazing seeing such jovial creatures, living carefree in our waters.”

Mr Beadle- who was with fellow members of the ‘Clifftop Crew’ Ross Martin, Jeff Wilson and Simon Woodley- said they have seen dolphins in the North Sea before but the only he had seen so many together in the Mediterranean  near Gibraltar.

“We spotted them on Monday afternoon, off Seaburn Beach from Roker pier before they started coming up the river from all angles.

“I got pictures of them with my zoom lens on my Nikon DSLR but they were extremely visible by eye,” he said.

 “I was hoping for one or two.”