A WHALE that died after being stranded on the Lizard on Friday has been removed and was being taken to Falmouth this afternoon.

The 60ft female fin whale was confirmed by a vet to have died after being found on privately owned Parbean beach near Nare Point on the south side of the Helford Estuary.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), a voluntary network of trained marine mammal medics who respond such incidents, said it received "multiple calls" on Friday lunchtime.

As reported by the Packet, a post-mortem that took place on Saturday in difficult weather conditions found that the whale was severely malnourished.

It was carried out by a team made up of the Marine Stranding Network's James Barnett with the support of volunteers and the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme's UK strandings team.

On Monday, the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme issued an update, which read: "Over the weekend, a team of CSIP, Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network and University of Exeter Cornwall staff and volunteers examined the body of a fin whale which had live stranded and died at Parbean Cove on Friday.

"The team found that the whale was a 19.25m subadult female in markedly negative nutritional condition.

"There was no evidence of recent feeding and the stomachs were completely empty – no plastics/marine debris were found in the gastrointestinal tract.

"Extensive oedema was present within the thoracic cavity, which may be of significance.

"Multiple samples were collected and follow up tests are pending.

"Huge thanks to everyone involved on Saturday and their considerable efforts – it was a great collaborative examination in very difficult conditions in the midst of Storm Dennis."

Today the whale was removed from the beach and was being taken to Falmouth.

It has not yet been confirmed what will happen to it from there.