Unalaska, AK – Dead whales don't fall on most airports' lists of air traffic hazards, but one that washed up near Dutch Harbor on Monday was an exception.

This afternoon, local harbor officers pulled a dead whale loose from the shore at the north end of the Unalaska Airport's runway. The rotting marine mammal had been attracting upwards of a hundred seabirds to the end of the runway, which was making it difficult for planes to take off.

Harbor officer Tim Mahoney, who helped tow the whale out to sea with the city's rescue boat, said the whale looked like it could have been a minke or maybe a humpback whale, but its level of decomposition made it hard to tell. He said it was about thirty feet long, but that that was an approximate measurement.

"We didn't actually throw a tape to it," he said. "It was pretty stinky."

The whale washed up Monday and got caught on the cement objects, called dolos, that form the breakwater at the end of the runway. Seas were rough at the time, and the first effort by harbor officers to pry the whale free failed.

But with calmer waters today, they were able to get the dead animal loose and tow it out to the waters off of Ulakta Head, outside of the harbor, where Mahoney said it's still floating.

"There's plenty of fresh bait floating around out there if anyone wants to bait their pots," he said. "Just look for the big white spot."

The last time a whale washed up here, in September, local marine biologist Reid Brewer took samples and measurements of the humpback before sinking the whale near Eider Point. But Brewer is out of town right now, so this whale has gone unexamined. Mahoney said that the port office got approval from the National Marine Fisheries Service office in Kodiak to dump the whale at sea, and that time was of the essence.

"With the birds the way they were, we were at the point where we were going to lose the airport for traffic," he said. "So they gave us permission to tow it off the beach."

There's been some speculation that the whale may be the same humpback that turned up in September. From the pictures available, Monday's whale appears smaller, but it's not clear enough to say for sure.