A whale, as long as a train car, died after accidentally entering a Japanese bay and will be buried until its bones can be collected for a nearby museum to use as a skeletal specimen in the future.

For the past three years, whales have been getting stuck in Osaka Bay, causing concerns about the causes and costs of dealing with these occurrences.

The creature was thought to be a male sperm whale, roughly 12 meters (39 feet) in length and weighing approximately 20 tons. It was first seen in Sakai Semboku Port in the middle of January.

The whale, which had been seen in various areas of Osaka Bay, was discovered by a boat captain to no longer be breathing last week. Officials and experts went by boat to investigate the whale’s condition and determined that it had died on February 19, likely from starvation.

Officials in Osaka have chosen to lay to rest the deceased whale in a designated area of an industrial waste management facility. This decision was made after a team of experts specializing in cetaceans performed an autopsy and acquired samples to investigate the cause of death, according to Toshihiro Yamawaki, an official from the prefectural environmental department.

The whale’s body was seen on television being delicately lifted by a crane and taken to a burial spot. It will remain buried for several years until it naturally decomposes into a skeleton. Afterwards, it will be dug up and gifted to the nearby natural history museum.

The reason for the beaching is unclear.

Yamawaki said whales have been sighted on and off not only in Osaka Bay but across Japan, noting experts’ view that whales generally follow the movement of the warm Kuroshio tide. Those that somehow miscalculated the distance and went too close to the coast may become stranded, scientists think.

The National Museum of Nature and Science’s whale stranding site reported that annually, Japan has an average of over 300 incidents of whales becoming stranded. The number varies each year, but in 2020 there were over 370 reported cases, while last year saw a decrease with 116 reported cases.

In the Osaka incident, only one animal was involved, similar to most other situations where animals are stranded. However, there have been instances where multiple whales have been observed stranded on nearby shorelines.

Specialists have mentioned several potential reasons for the situation where the animals are stuck in shallow waters. These reasons include changes in ocean levels, illnesses, and shifts in weather patterns. However, they are currently being studied further.

Several specialists pointed out the configuration of Osaka Bay, which contains numerous narrow channels, could pose a challenge for stray whales trying to return to the open ocean.

The prefectural officials immediately began discussing a plan of action in case the whale died in the bay. This incident served as a lesson after Yodo-chan, another stranded sperm whale, died just four days after appearing in the bay and decomposed, costing the public over $533,000 and receiving criticism.

The expense of burying the whale offshore was almost ten times the cost of burying another lost whale on land in 2021.

“I want to reassure the residents that the cost this time will be significantly reduced,” said Hirofumi Yoshimura, the governor of Osaka.