HUNDREDS flocked to see slaughtermen dispose of Newport's 60ft fin whale amid anger the authorities failed to preserve the mammal.

The 40-tonne female washed up on to a beach near the West Usk Light-house, St Brides, early on Thursday.

Many had called for the fin tail, the second-largest species of whale, to be preserved as a tourist attraction.

But as dawn broke on Saturday a team of eight abattoir workers moved in to dispose of the enormous carcass in front of heartbroken onlookers.

Pat Edwards, senior animal health inspector at Newport council, said that cutting up and incinerating the whale was the best option.

She said: "It would have cost a lot of money to preserve. If we had towed it back out to sea it probably would have come back and would have caused a hazard for ships and the body was just too delicate to be moved for burial."

After a gruelling seven-hour operation, the last remnants of the carcass were lifted from the sandbanks just after 1.30pm.

The remains were then transported to leak-proof containers before being taken by road to the Wessex Abattoir in Somerset to be incinerated.

A post mortem examination had earlier been carried out by an expert from the National History Museum in London and it is thought the whale had been ill for some time although how it turned up in St Brides is still a mystery.

In February this year the body of another fin tail whale which washed up on the Isle of Coll in Scotland was taken to a temporary holding site while the National Museum of Scotland made moves to recover its skeleton.

Many believe the Newport authorities could have done the same.

Veteran campaigner Charles Ferris, who fought to get the Newport Ship restored, said the city had missed out on a tourism opportunity.

He said: "There has been no foresight.

"Everyone has been far too hasty and nobody stopped to think what a great tourism opportunity this could have been if the skeleton was put on display.

"If it was good enough for Scotland then it should have been good enough for Wales."

South Wales East AM William Graham said he was disappointed the whale was disposed of so quickly.

He said: "I don't believe there was enough forward thinking here. Thousands of people went to see the whale and that shows you the level of interest in it.

"This would have made a spectacular display and we really have missed a golden opportunity."

Chris Freegard, Newport council's managing director, said: "I know that public health was a major concern - tonnes of rotting flesh is a hazard and we couldn't leave it too long or else we could have had a situation where the body exploded, as has happened elsewhere."

Paul Nicholas from Maesglas said he believed the public interest in the whale warranted its preservation.

He said: "If so many people are prepared to get up early in the morning to come and see the whale here then I'm sure a museum would have done well out of it."

Since Thursday, thousands of people from all over South Wales made the journey to see the whale and on Saturday police closed Lighthouse Road in St Brides because of the volume of traffic.

A spokesman for the National Museum of Wales said he sympathised with those who wanted the bones to go on display.

He said: "It would have been fantastic to have this creature shown somewhere although the costs involved would have been huge.

"The only way of funding it would have been through asking local businesses for the money. You would have been looking at around £40,000 just to de-grease the bones.

"Unfortunately there are no contingency plans in place for funding of this sort of project so maybe that's what we should now be looking at."