On Sunday, a crowd gathered to watch the examination and burial of the carcass of a beached humpback whale in the sand in the beach at Atlantic City, NJ. It was the second whale to come ashore in the city in the last month.

The Press of Atlantic City reported that dozens of observers came and stood on the sand dunes over the approximately five hours crews were working, watching them dissect and dispose of the corpse. A bulldozer was driven onto the beach to dig the whale its grave and bury the sea creature. The most common observation made by passersby was the pungent smell of the decomposing whale.

The whale, a female humpback, was about 10 yards long and described as a “sub-adult.” Experts on the site hoped to collect the samples to help determine the cause of death. The team examined the whale’s superficial features as well as its internal organs and stomach contents.

The beached whale was first reported to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine at around 8 a.m. Saturday. Stranding Center Director Sheila Dean said the organization came to the scene soon afterward to measure it and collect preliminary samples, which are important to get as soon as possible. It was towed from the point where it had washed up to a point farther up the beach.

The burial itself was a gory spectacle. Workers flayed sections of the sea creature, taking knives to hack off skin and collect samples for analysis. The cutting soon escalated to evisceration, with blood dripping off equipment and some innards spilling out onto the sand. The bulldozer yanked and battered the whale corpse, nearly pulverizing it, and placing it into its grave piecemeal. The air grew heavier with the corpse’s stench, forcing some onlookers to retreat from the scene or cover their noses.

Since 2016, 176 dead humpback whales have been reported to have washed ashore on the US East Coast. NOAA has declared the humpback deaths to be an “Unusual Mortality Event” (UME). NOAA notes that partial or full necropsy examinations were conducted on approximately half of the whales. Of the whales examined, about 40 percent had evidence of human interaction, either ship strike or entanglement.

Initial indications suggest that the whale may have died after being struck by a ship or large boat, as evidenced by a large head injury behind the blowhole.

“The only thing we suspect may have happened is that it was hit by a large boat,” said Sheila Dean, executive director of the Brigantine-based center. “There was a big hematoma.”