Ten-hour mission to excavate huge whale head

As the local community had previously attempted to rescue the fin whale in 2020, a decision was made to keep part of it so it could eventually be displayed as a memorial.

Scientist Robbie McDonald said he buried the skull on University of Exeter land in Falmouth to help prepare the bones for study and display, as it is the most natural way to clean them.

"Hopefully we can learn something about the marine environment that it came from but ultimately it will be a nice thing for people of Cornwall to remember this animal," he said.

The 20m (65ft) whale stranded in Parbean Cove at the mouth of the Helford river, and the species is the second largest animal on Earth, after the blue whale.

After gaining permission from the landowner - the Duchy of Cornwall - academics were able to take the whale's head for scientific purposes.

The head was then buried on grounds at the university's Cornwall campus in Penryn, without many people being aware of the burial.

"It's fantastic we really didn't know how it was going to go not having seen it for five years," explained Prof McDonald.

"There were a few touch and go moments where just the sheer weight of it can fracture the skull.

"There's a few nicks and a few dings but nothing we can't handle, so I'm delighted and it's come out really clean too."

An industrial vacuum machine, normally used to excavate buried utility cables, was used to help remove the soil from around the head which was then craned out of a 2m-deep (6.5ft) hole on university grounds.

Dave Hatton, who runs a plant hire firm, helped bury and then dig up the whale.

He said: "It was a fair old weight, much harder to get it out of the ground than putting it in.

"I've been asked to help dispose of whales before with my digger but doing this is something a bit different isn't it?"