A whale which swam aground a beach in Beigang village, Hainan Province in south China, on February 5, and later was returned to the sea by a rescue team was found dead Friday at the nearby village of Xingang.

The stranded whale, found by a fisherman on the first day of the Chinese lunar New Year, spent four days in just 1.5 meters of water and suffered a severe sunburn which became infected and ultimately caused its death, according to animal experts.

Rescue workers succeeded on February 8 in tugging the whale back into the ocean with nets and thick ropes and two powerful fishing vessels.

Rescuers built a plastic tent to shelter the whale from the scorching sun, but failed in their initial attempts to tug the animal back to sea with a fishing boat.

The whale, weighing at least 15,000 kg, was about 11 meters long (36.3 feet), and 1.4 meters tall.

Zoologists guessed that the rapid currents in the Qiongzhou Strait may have affected the whale's sense of direction.