Beached Whale Taken to Landfill

A 30 tonne sperm whale that was found washed up on an Edinburgh beach has been spotted being taken to a landfill in a lorry. The 13.8 metre long carcass was discovered at Portobello beach in Joppa on Saturday.

Yeah. This happened.

After being towed to a port in Fife, and then taken to a Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) facility, the whale was removed as landfill. According to the SMASS Facebook page, the necropsy had to take place at a landfill site, because the animal’s size meant it could only be moved as landfill.

Landfill necrospy.

SMASS could not leave the whale where it was, “as it is too close to a major city”, and could not bury it on site because it “would likely be uncovered by tidal action”.

“The only other option was to remove it to landfill. Not the nicest place to perform a necropsy but it does allow us to get an accurate weight on an animal that would be too big to weigh anywhere else.”

Experts believe the whale may have been killed in a collision with boat propellers. It remains unconfirmed if this was a result of the whale biting off the captain’s leg, and his making it a practically assailable, visible personification of all the subtle demonisms in life.