Fishermen discovered a dead sperm whale off the South Shore yesterday as they returned with their catch.

The juvenile whale was found floating by rocks off Wreck Hill, Sandys, and is thought to have been dead for a couple of weeks.

The 19ft animal's carcass revealed several shark bites and its skin was cracked by the sun.

Fisherman Bobby Lambe spotted the whale near the shore as he returned from lobster potting in the morning.

At Robinson's Marina he met up with conservationist Andrew Stevenson, who had also heard about the whale from another fisherman.

The pair went out and towed the animal back to the public dock at Ely's Harbour, with a rope looped around its tail fluke.

A team of veterinarians and staff from the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo (BAMZ) then arrived to take its measurements and other data.

Dr. Ian Walker, BAMZ principal curator, said: "We can't tell the cause of death but this whale has been dead for a while, probably a couple of weeks.

"It's got good buoyancy so it has definitely been decaying on the inside. The skin is also cracked so it's been in the sun for a while. And it's had a lot of shark interest probably tiger sharks."

Dr. Walker said it was unusual to see sperm whales so close to Bermuda at this time of year. "It may have come in on a current," he said.

The BAMZ team were unable to do a necropsy (autopsy) yesterday due to the size of the whale and its location, by the ramp of the public dock.

However, the scientific data collected includes its blubber thickness, to see how much fat the animal was carrying at the time of its demise. "We are just getting as much data and measurements as we can," said Dr. Walker.

The team were unable to dispose of the carcass yesterday due to ocean swells, but hope to tow the whale back out to sea at some point today.