Decomposing whale washes ashore in Dominion

A decomposing whale has washed ashore in Dominion, N.S., and it's unclear what kind of whale it is.

Dylan Yates of the Cape Breton Environmental Society went to see the carcass on Sunday. He said it's 11.5-metres long.

He believes it washed up some time on Saturday during some stormy weather in the area.

"It looks like the whale has been has been dead for awhile, I would say, or at least a month," Yates said.

Yates said photos of the carcass began appearing on social media on Sunday morning.

He said he's sent photos to the Marine Animal Response Society to get more information on the whale.

"It's really difficult to determine the species by photos," he said. "The body is really distorted. It's really decomposed and the identifying factors like the fins aren't there."

No one from the Marine Animal Response Society was immediately available for an interview.

It's difficult to tell how the whale could have died just by looking at it, Yates said.

"It looks strange," Yates said. "To someone who doesn't know much about whales, if you were to walk up to it, you would be kind of a little bit baffled by it, I guess. It's pretty stinky, too."

Yates said the beach where the whale washed up took a beating during the storm on Saturday.

"The barrier actually broke through," he said. "It's a mess down there."