REPORTS of a "big fish" near Lyme Regis coast have baffled local fishermen and boat owners.

The mysterious creature has been spotted numerous times but witnesses have very differing views on what it could be.

The latest sighting was reported by Joe May, 26, a carpet fitter of Colway Lane, Lyme, who was returning to the town from Branscombe, where he and five friends had a barbecue on Sunday evening, when they noticed the creature in the water.

He said: "I thought it was a dolphin to start with and we followed it for a little bit when it came out of nowhere, within about three feet of the boat.

"It came straight towards the boat and then it went down, straight under the boat. It had a massive body and the tail was about a metre long."

A pilot whale has been seen over the last three weeks off Charmouth and Lyme and Mr May believes that was what he saw.

"I think it was definitely a pilot whale, not a dolphin," he said.

"The reason I think it was a pilot whale is because it was black with white markings."

But his father, Lyme fisherman Harry May, is not so sure - he went out on his boat, Marie F, on Sunday in search of the fish after Joe phoned him and said: "I went out to have a look. I think it was a very big dolphin or something.

"It was acting a bit like one."

Nick Williams, 47, also a Lyme fisherman, went out on his own boat, Kraken, at the same time and is certain the creature, which he estimates was 12-feet long, was not a whale.

He said: "I think it was some sort of rare porpoise but I haven't had chance to look it up yet. It was a very distinct thing and I can see why people might think it was a whale, but I have seen pilot whales before and they are bigger than that - it wasn't bulky enough."

The sighting comes just days after a giant basking shark was seen heading out to sea towards Portland Bill by boat owner Andy Saddington, 42, from Portland.

But Harry and Joe agree this was definitely not a shark. Joe said: "There is no chance it was a basking shark because they don't come up and surface like that."

Harry added: "It was big but it was very, very dolphin-like."

Bridport-based marine life expert Tom Brereton, research director for Marinelife, which monitors whales and dolphins, said from the description of its appearance and behaviour it sounded like it could be a white beaked dolphin, or a white-sided dolphin.

He said many unusual sightings had been made in the last couple of weeks including Killer Whales off Cornwall.

He said: "Because it was attracted to the boat it sounds like a dolphin."