Huge whale found dead on Chinese beach may have choked on fishing net

A huge sperm whale washed up dead on the eastern cost of China last month may have died after it swallowed a fishing net, according to a newspaper report.

Two adult sperm whales were found dead on a beach in Nantong in Jiangsu province in February.

One whale, weighing 41 tonnes, was sent to a museum in Dalian in Liaoning province to be preserved, the Huaxin Metropolis Daily said.

Museum workers found a black net more than eight metres long and two metres wide inside the animal, the article said.

No food was found in the whale’s stomach during dissection, suggesting it was hungry when it died, according to the report.

Sui Hongjin, the founder of the Dalian museum, was quoted as saying that no injures or internal bleeding were detected in the animal.