A rotting whale head washed ashore in Perth, Australia on Monday morning -- the stinking hunk of flesh presenting quite the challenge for authorities tasked with excising it from Sorrento Beach.

Officials with the Department of Parks and Wildlife were forced to call in the big guns, rolling in a piece of heavy machinery to help dispose of the rotting sperm whale head.

"It was a complex and challenging operation due to the location," explained Parks and Wildlife Senior Marine Ranger Vaughn Chapple, "as the whale head had to be moved by excavator up a 15-meter-long, 40-degree embankment."

Authorities said the head, which usually comprises one-third of a whale's mass, weighed roughly five metric tons.

The whale's body was found a few miles away; its presence moved officials to close the beach over worry the carcass might attract sharks.