A dead humpback whale washed ashore at the point at Cape Henlopen State Park on Sunday.

Suzanne Thurman with the Marine Education, Rehabilitation and Research Institute in Lewes said the whale will be secured and a necropsy will be performed.

On Monday morning, heavy equipment hauled the juvenile female humpback whale from the water to higher ground. Thurman said the whale was first spotted in Cape May, New Jersey, on Saturday.

Whales off the Delaware coast: Your guide to these huge mammals

Humpback whales can reach 60 feet in length and weigh up to 80,000 pounds. They enjoy feasting on tiny crustaceans, plankton and small fish, and live at the surface of the ocean and in shallow coastline waters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates there are at least 80,000 humpback whales worldwide, about 12,000 of which live in the Atlantic Ocean. The agency declared an unusual mortality event for this whale species in 2016 after an unusual number of whales were found dead or stranded on East Coast beaches. To date, 79 humpback whales have washed ashore from Florida to Maine as part of that mortality event.

Contact reporter Maddy Lauria at (302) 345-0608, mlauria@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @MaddyinMilford.

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