A dead blue whale was found washed up on a Japanese beach

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Beachgoers in Kamakura City, Japan, received quite a shock on Sunday when a 34-foot blue whale washed up dead on the beach.

The Washington Post reported that experts claimed this is the first time a blue whale has ever been recorded on Japanese shores.

The cause of the mammal's death is reportedly unknown.

Civil engineers were called to the beach to move the whale ashore for examination.

Yuko Tajima, a curator at Tokyo's National Museum of Nature and Science, said that the whale was male and likely born earlier this year.

According to The Asahi Shimbun , the museum is expected to shift the whale to a facility in Shizuoka Prefecture for further analysis.

Blue whales are classified as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature , which estimates the species' population to be between 10,000 and 25,000.

They are the largest animals on the planet, weighing up to 200 tons, according to the World Wildlife Fund .

The species was hunted to the brink of extinction by commercial whalers from the 40s to the 60s until they were made a protected stock by the International Whaling Commission .