Experts who carried out a post-mortem on the whale stranded on a Thanet beach have identified the cause of death as a "possible ship strike".

The 35ft mammal, discovered on Wednesday morning last week, was at first believed to be a minke whale, but a team from the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) have confirmed it was a juvenile female fin whale.

The two-hour investigation was carried out that evening at Foreness Point, between Cliftonville and Broadstairs, by Rob Deaville and his team, before Thanet council disposed of the creature at 6.30am the following morning.

A spokesman for the Zoological Society of London said: "The damage to the tail was considered to be consistent with trauma following impact from propeller blades.

"Several deep, parallel, linear and diagonal incisions were noted on the right and ventral aspect of the remaining portion of the tail. The carcass was generally pale and had a ‘bled out’ appearance.

"Although most of the gastrointestinal tract was missing, we did find bile staining in the remaining portion of the intestine, which might indicate a recent lack of feeding and could be consistent with the whale’s presence in the relatively abnormal habitat for this species of the southern North Sea.

"Although it wasn't possible to conclusively determine that the whale was alive when struck, the observed pathology is most consistent with this and we have given the case a provisional cause of death of 'possible ship strike'."

"Huge thanks to Thanet council for facilitating our access to the stranding and also to members of the local Coastguard for their much valued help onsite. Many thanks as well to the Receiver of Wreck, local police and Julia Cable, Steve Green and Gilli Graham of British Divers Marine Life Rescue."

CSIP co-ordinates reports of dead stranded whales, dolphins and porpoises – collectively known as cetaceans – and basking sharks and marine turtles from around the UK.

Since CSIP began investigating UK strandings in 1990, this is the fifth fin whale to be reported washed up on the Kent coast and the third this year.

After investigations concluded the 13-tonne whale was taken to Viridor’s Shelford Landfill site in Canterbury on Friday morning.

There has been a landfill operation on the site for over three decades and as part of the service whale carcasses have been treated in the past with strict regulations to ensure the waste is contained and treated without impact to the surrounding environment.

The whale has entered a self-contained and engineered landfill cell where it will decompose over the next 10 years.

From this, renewable energy will be generated and should be enough to power an average family home in the local area for half a year.

Viridor unit manager Alessandro Sarno said: "I have worked at the site for the past two years and have seen all sorts of bizarre things from very small items such as mistakenly thrown-away wedding rings to supersized objects such as a whale!

"Whilst handling the whale the team also took a moment to gaze in awe at this stunning creature that has come to the end of its journey.”

It is believed that the floating whale sighted north of the Kent coastline was the same mammal.