Dead 10 metre long blue whale calf stuns beachgoers as it washes ashore in Japan – the first time the rare species has been seen in the country

A dead blue whale calf shocked beachgoers when it washed up on the sand in Kamakura on Japan‘s southern coast.

The 10-metre-long endangered mammal died at sea, though it was not clear whether it died of sickness or from injury before it was found dead in the shallows.

Blue whales, the world’s biggest animal that can grow up to 30m and weigh 170 tons, have never appeared on Japan’s beaches before.

A dead blue whale calf shocked beachgoers when it washed up on the sand in Kamakura on Japan’s southern coast

Blue whales, the world’s biggest animal that can grow up to 30m and weigh 170 tons, have never appeared on Japan’s beaches before

Yuko Tajima from Tokyo’s National Museum of Nature and Science said the young whale was born sometime this year.

Civil engineers dragged its body on to the beach and experts put up a tent around it to dissect and further to examine the carcass.

Experts said the young whale was born sometime this year and was only a third of the size of an a massive adult blue whale

The 10-metre-long endangered mammal died at sea, though it was not clear whether it died of sickness or from injury before it was found dead in the shallows

Scientists begin to cut into the whale to work out why it died and more about its physiology

Civil engineers dragged its body on to the beach using the loader pictured here, and experts put up a tent around it to dissect and further to examine the carcass

The whale’s body will then be transferred to a facility in Shizuoka Prefecture for further examination.

Blue whales are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature after decades of commercial whaling.

There are just 10,000 to 25,000 blue whales left in the wild, and they are still threatened by climate change and bumping into ships.

There are just 10,000 to 25,000 blue whales left in the wild, and they are still threatened by climate change and bumping into ships