CREATURES more used to the climate of the Caribbean are finding a new home – the Dorset coastline.

Wildlife experts have uncovered a number of species previously unseen on UK shores.

These species have travelled across the Atlantic from the warm waters off Florida and Bermuda, or even further from near the Caribbean.

It is thought that marine litter has enabled them to wash onto Dorset’s shores.

With the help of oceanic waste, species that would usually be unable to survive have managed the mammoth journey to the UK and are still alive when they get here.

Two species of tropical scallops were found living inside a plastic bait pot from the USA.

Wildlife expert and photographer Steve Trewhella said the scallops would have entered tiny holes in the pot as larvae and stayed protected within it, growing into fully-formed scallops by the time they reached the Dorset shoreline.

Mr Trewhella said: “These scallops have never been seen in this country.

“Yet this item of litter has enabled them to travel up to 5,000 miles and still be living and having grown when they got here.”

He added that, although fascinating, the inadvertent introduction of tropical creatures could have big implications for those native to UK waters.

“The increase in marine litter and oceanic litter in general has carried species that could not live naturally in these waters,” he said.

“There is a very real possibility that marine litter – if it hasn’t already – will introduce foreign species.”