WILDWOOD CREST, N.J. --

Slideshow: View Images | Video: Huge Whale Found In Wildwood

Marine mammal experts have announced that they do believe the 35-foot whale carcass that washed up Thursday onto the beach at Wildwood Crest was involved in a collision with a fishing boat.

A marine expert completed the autopsy Friday and said the whale's injuries and time of death coincide with the time the fishermen's boat sank Saturday in the Atlantic Ocean off Delaware.

Seven people on that boat were stranded at sea until a dramatic Coast Guard rescue on Monday.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine said the whale washed ashore at about 5 a.m. Thursday in the Cape May County town of Wildwood Crest.

Officials believed the whale -- weighing at least 20 tons -- had been dead for three or four days.

The U.S. Coast Guard spotted the carcass floating in the ocean Wednesday and notified the center.

The Coast Guard placed a tracking device on the body and tracked it overnight.

"The people that were on that vessel said they struck a submerged black object that was very large. They don't know what it was. This whale that washed ashore this morning has what appears to be blunt-force trauma to the head area, which could be a connection between the two," said Steve Siler of the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday.

The young, male humpback drew hundreds of curious onlookers to the beach, along with experts.

Bulldozers were being used to tow the whale out of the water and onto the beach.

Experts say it's not uncommon to find humpbacks off the Jersey and Delaware coasts this time of year. At least six dead whales have washed ashore along the New Jersey coast this year.

This one provided a sight -- and smell -- people won't soon forget.