INTERNATIONAL: A young humpback whale carcass washed out on the rocks. It washed out at about 7AM on Thursday morning, with the cause of death unknown, but could be linked to malnutrition.

The 7.8-metre-long whale, relatively small by humpback standards, had most likely been part of a "super-pod" of humpback whales sighted off the Atlantic seaboard in recent days.

The carcass was only removed from the shore in the afternoon because of the tide. Police and the National Sea Rescue Institute assisted with the removal process. They tow it off the rocks.

According to the city of Cape Town environmental management representative, Jacques Du Toit, "It's very difficult to say what the cause of death is, there's no visible causes of death, no injuries or nothing broken that we can see on the whale. The young male does look thin, its blubber is not very thick so it can refer to malnutrition but we don't know why it died and we cannot see if it's linked to anything man-made or any other impact."

The incident can happen about 12 times a year. Cape Town locals find whales washed up and they have to remove them along the city's coastline. They take them on a flatbed and take them to a landfill site, where they get buried.