The body of a humpback whale that washed up near Rainbow Beach, has now been removed from the sand.
The mammal was discovered on Monday evening and reported to the Department of Environment and Science.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rangers decided to call in tow trucks to transport the whale for burial and land disposal, with the steep dunes and the whale’s size and location deemed problematic.
Clayton’s Towing was called in to take the carcass away, after earlier attempts to remove the whale on Tuesday had failed.
“They put a big effort but there was an unsuccessful attempt by another firm… just due to the size of it, there was a lot of weight involved and the tide beat them. So we got the call [Tuesday] night to see if we could get up there and help out,” says managed Mike Clayton.
The whale was successfully loaded onto the back of a flatbed truck using winches and an excavator, before being removed on Wednesday afternoon.
It’s believed to have weighed around 20 tonnes.
The whale’s cause of death hasn’t been determined, with a DES spokesperson saying strandings can happen for many different reasons, including natural mortality, and can occur anywhere along the Queensland coast.
“We can expect to see a small number of whale deaths and strandings each year during the annual migration. This includes whales suffering from natural disease issues and juveniles being attacked by predators.”
