A 40FT whale washed up on Morecambe Bay is to be buried at Salt Ayre tip.

Harbour staff had hoped to give the young female fin whale a dignified burial at sea but it was loaded onto a flat top truck and taken to Salt Ayre tip so an autopsy could take place.

Once zoologists have discovered the cause of death a crane will be used to shift the massive carcass to the landfill site where it will be buried.

Marine biologists are baffled at how this young fin whale, usually to be found in the icy waters of the North West Atlantic, ended up in the Irish Sea.

At first they thought it had been struck by a ship but there were no obvious injuries.

A Marine biologist from the Institute of Zoology, Rob Deaville, travelled up from London to carry out a post mortem on the mammal and said it was "very, very rare" to have a fin whale in British waters.

"We've had a 12ft Minke whale and lots of porpoises wash up before but nothing like this," he said.

"It's a deep ocean species and this one is just a teenager. Fully grown, they can get to about 85ft. We want to carry out a post mortem but because it was in a public place and was going to be messy it was moved to a more suitable site."

Port safety manager, Michael Edwards, said: "We've not seen anything like this before. It's absolutely beautiful to look at. It's a great shame it died. A member of the public spotted it at the entrance to the port and we went out in a pilot boat at 2am and dragged it into the harbour where it was secured."

Lancashire Waste Services has a special licence to dispose of land and sea mammals and Director, Ken Taylor, explained: "We handle dead animals killed on roads and have had a couple of seals before but nothing like this. The carcass will be disposed of by digging a trench but because of the sheer size and weight of the whale we will need a crane to lift it into place."

Fin whales are the second largest mammals in the world, and can travel up to 23 mph and live up to 100 years old.