Warning huge whale washed up on Cornwall beach has high risk of 'blowing up'
16 November 2023, 11:11
Locals have been warned to stay away from a huge whale that washed up on Newquay's Fistral Beach on Wednesday, over fears that its blood is toxic and it could explode.
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The dead female fin whale, thought to be a juvenile, is 16 metres long and was discovered by surfers from the Newquay Activity Centre in the early hours of the morning.
A cordon has now been set up around the whale, which is the second largest mammal after the blue whale, to keep the public away from it.
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Newquay Activity Centre said in a statement: "Advice to the public is to stay over 20ft away (a cordon is being put in place).
"There are organisms still living on the now-deceased whale which it's important to keep distance from and the blood can be toxic.
"A decision will be made concerning if the tide will naturally move the body or other measures will be required. Very sad scenes."
A volunteer at Cornwall Wildlife Trust has warned that the whale has a "high chance of blowing up", which would be "very gassy and messy".
Dead whales often explode when gases come into contact with their large corpses.
It is not clear what caused the whale's death, but pictures of the animal show that it is covered in blood and scratch marks
A post-mortem is now being carried out on the mammal.
Rob Barber, director of the centre, told Sky News that the whale was thought to have been seen alive on Tuesday, swimming close to Newquay Bay.
He said: "We noticed what looked like a big, uncovered, grey rock but as the light got brighter, we could see it was a creature of some kind.
"After we investigated, we found a 16-metre-long whale."It's super sad obviously but it's also phenomenally interesting."
