Especially when it's dead.

Options include burying, burning or rendering the carcase on site.

There is, however, another way ... involving dynamite.

The method does have its drawbacks, however, including the potential risk of onlookers being crushed by flying chunks of blubber.

That's what happened at Boulmer in 1973, when the decision was taken to explode a 54-foot-long sperm whale which had beached and died at Seaton Point.

Spurned by petfood manufacturers, the massive mammal was packed full of gelignite, more commonly used to blast rocks at nearby Howick Quarry.

The resulting bang, though, caused a 50kg block of whale-meat to hurl towards police, Press and spectators.

But if you think that's bad, spare a thought for the people of Tainan City, Taiwan, in 2004.

It happened when the huge decomposing body of a sperm whale, measuring 17m (55ft 9in) long and weighing 50 tons, was being carried through the city centre on a truck.

Little did anyone expect that gasses trapped in the belly of the beast had built up to such an extent that the whale suddenly exploded.

The result was splattered blood and whale entrails all over surrounding shop-fronts, bystanders, and cars.

And the phenomenon is not unique, it appears.

A stranded whale in Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, also decayed until it exploded. Locals say that its blubber "hung in the trees for weeks."