A 19-foot-long minke whale, washed ashore in Co Louth, was probably on its way to the Arctic Circle when it died. Local people spotted the carcass and alerted the Irish Seal Sanctuary.
The sanctuary's spokesman, Mr Brendan Price, said that each year a minke whale was likely to be washed up somewhere along the Irish coastline.
The carcass also attracted the attention of the Marine Mammal Rescue Team. It said laboratory tests on specimens from the whale should indicate the cause of death. Its spokesman, Mr Eugene Brennan, said it was likely that the mammal had died at sea and floated ashore.
The minkes are a protected species and this time every year begin their journey from the tropics to the Arctic. The partly decomposed remains were at Salterstown strand, about eight miles north of Clogherhead.
Mr Price said the whale is known as a minke because it has plates of baleen, similar to cartilage, in its mouth instead of teeth. The size of the whale suggested it was nearly a full-grown adult and the species normally live a long life in the seas between the Arctic and the tropics.
Another minke was washed ashore near Rush, Co Dublin, three years ago, and in 1994, in Dunmore East, Co Waterford, one was successfully re-floated and returned to the sea. It was suggested that the carcass recovered at Salterstown should be put into quicklime, with the bones removed and put back together as a perfect skeleton of the mammal for a local museum.