A beach in Barnegat Light is the final resting place for a 15-ton whale whose lifeless body washed ashore on Christmas Day.

State and local officials used heavy equipment Monday morning to bury the 31-foot male humpback whale on the beach near the jetty of Barnegat Inlet.

The whale was frozen solid and could not be cut into pieces for removal, as is commonly done in other cases in which dead whales wash ashore. It was the way crews removed a large whale that washed ashore in Toms River back in April 2017 when temperatures were warmer.

AP wire services helped contribute to this report.