Whale of a Problem for Big Komatsu

We have covered the rather sad and gory task of removing dead whales from beaches with construction machinery in the past, and sadly we have received news of yet another one in Australia this week.

This giant whale which is around 13 metres long and estimated to weigh somewhere in the region of 31-tonnes, washed up on City Beach in Perth on Monday 28^th, sparking a feeding frenzy with sharks including a great white, which led to the closure of the beach to the public.

A 85-tonne class Komatsu PC850LC-11 hydraulic excavator was brought in to assist in the operation, and was used to roll the mammal onto a tarpaulin and netting to hold it all together.

The excavator managed to drag the decomposing carcass some 1.5 kilometres up the beach to the local surf club, but it soon became apparent that to lift the dead beast onto a lorry, a larger piece of equipment was going to be needed, potentially a crane, so it was decided to leave it on the beach for one more night.

It will eventually be loaded and taken to a landfill site where it will finally be buried.  

This cannot be a pleasant task for the operator of this machine or anyone else in the immediate vacinity as in the Australian heat, the stench of the rotting carcass must be unberarable.