One massive dead whale has left beachgoers stunned, with the carcass of a 27 tonne humpback discovered on a beach and covered in barnacles.

The body of the deceased whale, which was oozing bodily fluids out of its carcass, has since been removed from its final resting place in Cape Town, South Africa.

A statement from Helderberg Ocean Awareness Movement founder Lisa Starr said that although the whale had died of "natural causes", it would be difficult to know exactly what had caused the death without an autopsy.

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Said autopsy would see the deceased whale, which weighed nearly 27 tonnes and was 13.5metres in length, gutted and prodded by experts hoping to figure out what caused the death.

She said: "I've just had in that the actual weight of it was 26.6 tonnes [around 58,600 lbs], and it was 13.5 meters [44.3 feet] in length.

"The city do believe it [died from] natural causes. There is nothing sinister happening in the ocean at the moment. All the seismic blasting has been halted that we're aware of.

"Nobody can tell [the actual cause of death] without an autopsy being carried out, but as you can imagine, that's extremely difficult."

Such a difficulty would reveal, though, whether or not seismic blasting had made a contribution to the death of the whale.

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Regardless of the whale's demise, it appears a piece of the animal was sent off for further research after it was shown the whale was coated in barnacles.

Starr added: "It is believed that adult Humpback whales can have up to a 450kg of them on their bodies—that's a lot of free riders! This may seem like a lot to you but to an animal that can weigh up to 40 tonnes it isn't much at all.

"The barnacles tend to concentrate themselves in particular areas of the body: along the rostrum (upper jaw), lips, throat, flippers, tips of the tail flukes and even around the genital slits."

The carcass has subsequently been removed by officials who were worried that leaving it to rot on the sand would cause further issues with a large amount of gas and bacteria released during decomposition.

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