Today at the beach at Pleasant Roads we could see large numbers of Southern Giant Petrels on the sea and also on the beach obviously feeding on some thing that had been washed up on the beach.

When we got near we could see that it was a small whale species that they and Kelp Gulls were feeding on. Most of the whale was covered in sand so we dug the tail out and put a rope around it and towed the whale to the back of the beach so it was not completly covered in the next couple of days. 

It turned out to be an Andrew's Beaked Whale.

Also seen feeding on it was a tagged Turkey Vulture number 12

It is about 4m long and the tooth is 20cm from the tip of the beak, we will be going back to take more measurements in the next few days as well as material for DNA analysis.

Below are some of the picture I took if anybody has any idea or known someone who might know what species it could be could you please email me. (Now ID as a Andrew's Beaked Whale, thanks for the many emails)