The Summer Flower, which was positioned in front of the Berendrecht lock at the Port of Antwerp, manoeuvred to release the creature, which had remained unnoticed, although the ship’s log revealed a slightly reduced speed of about one knot since the vessel entered the English Channel on its way from Santa Marta to Antwerp. The staff at the Antwerp Coordination Centre (the port’s supervision and crisis centre) notified the river police and port authorities, and the 20-metre long cadaver was towed to the Berendrecht lock’s south quay. Later that same day, the whale was taken to the Antwerp left bank beach where it was inspected by staff from the North Sea Mathematical Models and the Scheldt Estuary (MUMM), a department of the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences. Hundreds of people lined the river bank to watch the whale be towed to the Sint-Anneke beach at high tide. Scientists from the University of Liège and the National Botanic Garden of Belgium took samples for further research, after which the cadaver was cut up and transported to a specialised waste site. The whale’s jaw and bones were taken to the Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

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