Dead whale found at the mouth of Maurice River, New Jersey

In Commercial Township Thursday night, officials discovered a large whale that washed up at the mouth of the Maurice River. Now the investigation into its cause of death begins. Officials say the process of examining and transporting the animal was not an easy one. It's not something you hear about everyday, a whale washed up near the mouth of Maurice River, and once discovered, officials transported it to a nearby landfill.

"It's not something you'd find in the Delaware River or this far up. Usually they are open water animals, not inland like this," said Bob Schoelkopf with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.

"When I approached my guys about this yesterday, none of them could believe it until they came down and saw it for themselves," said Clint Miller, Manager for Commercial Township's Public Works.

Public works crews brought the whale to the landfill in Commercial Township. Officials cut up the whale and examined it to try and determine the cause of death.

"Looking at the condition internally of the animal, the only cause of death we could find is starvation. There's no food or anything inside of the entire intestinal track," said Schoelkopf.

But officials say it's possible the whale died from the Morbilli virus, which has killed many dolphins along the East Coast over the past two years. They will not know the exact cause of death until samples of the whale's body are further examined.

"We are always concerned that could be the problem with the whales as well. The Minke Whale in Atlantic City in may did test positive for Morbilli," said Schoelkopf.

Officials say although slicing up the whale and examining it is a rough task, Commercial Township's Public Works made the job just a little easier. Crews dug a massive hole, and buried the remains of the Minke Whale.

"We couldn't have done it without them. They are the ones who got it off the beach where it washed up," said Schoelkopf.

"We can all say that we buried a whale now I guess. That's different for the roads department," said Miller.

Officials say they should know the exact cause of death by next week.