A two-tonne Minke Whale ran aground at Skallingen off Esbjerg according to the Fisheries and Maritime Museum, which received news of the 7.35m baleen whale’s plight after dark on Saturday.

“Normally when whales run aground it’s because there’s something wrong with them, so it’s better to put them down than try to push them out to sea again,” says Museum Spokeswoman Ragnhild Skov.

“But it was too dark to try to shoot it on Saturday, and when we came back on Sunday it had died,” she adds.

Minke whales live in the North Sea and are not that unusual in Denmark, although a stranded live whale is unusual.

Although dead, a museum marksman had a test shot at the whale to see whether such a shot would have been able to kill the whale.

“It may sound strange, but it was to see whether it is possible to kill such a large animal. It is on the borderline of what can be killed with a rifle, at least according to the recommendations, which speak of eight metres,” Skov says.

A digger called in to lift the whale onto a truck for transport to the Fisheries and Maritime Museum was unable to lift the animal on board, despite a two-ton lifting capacity.

The whale is to be dissected to find its cause of death.

“It seems healthy enough, despite some scars and gashes. Nor does it seem to be particularly thin, so we can’t say why it died,” Skov concludes.

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