Scarborough whale death: Post-mortem test held
A post-mortem examination will take place later on a whale which washed ashore at Scarborough.
The Minke whale, measuring 27ft (8.3m) in length, had died before it was found on the beach on Wednesday.
Scarborough Borough Council said contractors would remove it from the beach later.
Tests on the whale will be performed by an expert from the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) to establish what caused its death.
CISP investigates all whale, dolphin and porpoise strandings on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Geoff Edmunds, from the RSPCA in Scarborough, said: "This one was reported on Wednesday afternoon as dead in the North Bay and it beached near the Holbeck slipway [South Bay] later that evening.
"It has been recorded as part of the UK strandings programme and we have an expert on his way to perform a post-mortem before we dispose of it.
"It is a technically challenging job to remove it and I can't put a time on it because you can't predict how long these jobs take."
Mr Edmunds said Minke whales were being increasingly seen off the east coast during July, August and September.