LITTLE COMPTON — With help from a hired excavator, officials at Briggs Beach on Saturday laid to rest a dead humpback whale that had been decomposing for nearly a week.

The whale had washed ashore on June 14 and was in water that was 2 to 5 feet deep, but the private beach association managed to bury the animal during low tide, despite problems with waves and incoming water, said Ron Bogle, manager of the private beach.

“We gave it our best shot,” Bogle said. “We got it buried as best we could.”

Staff members from the Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration were also on hand, taking measurements and blubber samples.

The burial was expected to cost the beach association about $1,500. Even so, Bogle said the project might have gone better if they had paid for more excavators.

“We could have used two or three,” he said.

The whale at Briggs Beach was one of two to wash ashore in Little Compton this past week. A second washed ashore between Sakonnet Point and Round Pond. The animal, reported to be a female pilot whale, got trapped in shallow water and died minutes later, eyewitnesses said.