The carcass of a 55ft (17m) fin whale has been removed from a popular tourist beach in an operation the council said was the biggest of its kind it has ever undertaken. The 30-tonne animal got into difficulties in the sea at Bridlington, East Yorkshire, earlier this week and died on Tuesday.
On Friday, East Riding of Yorkshire Council said contractors had managed to move it off the beach in an “incredibly challenging and difficult operation”. The huge mammal became a macabre tourist attraction as people travelled for miles to see the carcass.
There were concerns that the whale would have to be dissected to remove it from the beach, but East Riding of Yorkshire Council said contractors managed to move it whole. A council spokesman said on Friday: “We have now managed to move the whale’s body off the beach and on to a truck, strapped it down and carried it up a slipway.
