The 20m creature became trapped on a sandbank in County Cork's Courtsmachsherry estuary last Thursday. It was still alive, blowing air from its spout.
The tide was falling and, by the time rescuers could get out to it on foot, the creature had died. After failed attempts to move the whale, watched by thousands of people who arrived following radio announcement of the stranding, the decision was taken to bury the carcass, estimated to weigh about 50 tonnes, on the beach.
Two JCBs were deployed over the weekend to dig a large hole into which the carcass is to be rolled. A post mortem was carried out in a bid to find out whether the whale had stranded as a sick or healthy animal. Even if healthy, it could still have died from the effect of its own weight crushing organs, including its lungs.
Vets working with a team from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) and University College Cork removed organs for examination, aided by an expert flown in specially from the USA. Joy Reidenberg, Associate Professor of Medical Education at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, was flown over with a film crew by National Geographic on Friday. Reidenberg has carried out post mortem studies on many large baleen whales.
The fin whale is being buried with all organs removed, the organs being incinerated after examination. It is possible that the skeleton will be salvaged later for local display. It would, said Padraig Whooley of the IWDG and National Parks and Wildlife Service Rangers, be a "tremendous resource".
The fin whale, which can grow to about 27m long, is the world's second-largest mammal, after the blue whale. Prevalent off the Atlantic seaboards of Ireland and parts of the UK, it is a protected species, increasing in population after being hunted almost to extinction in the past.
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