Exploding whale

Exploding whale

Exploding whales have been documented on two notable occasions, as well as several lesser-known ones. The most famous explosion occurred in the United States at Florence, Oregon, in 1970, when a dead sperm whale (originally reported as a gray whale) was blown up by the Oregon Highway Division in an attempt to dispose of its rotting carcass. This incident became famous in the U.S. when American humorist Dave Barry wrote about it in his newspaper column after viewing a videotape of television footage of the explosion. It later became well-known internationally when the same footage circulated on the Internet.

There have also been spontaneous explosions. The most widely reported example was in Taiwan in 2004, when a buildup of gas inside a decomposing sperm whale caused it to explode while it was being transported for a post-mortem examination. Exploding whales have been written about and documented by several well known authors.

Incidents

Documented cases of exploding animals are fairly rare. Whale explosions in the United States and Taiwan were widely covered by the world press. However, there have been less famous incidents in other parts of the world.

Florence, Oregon, USA

On November 12, 1970, a height|m=14, eight-ton sperm whale died as a result of beaching itself near Florence, Oregon.Linnman, Paul and Doug Brazil, Chapter 7. Linnman contacted Dr. Bruce Mate, a marine biologist at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport who was there that day. Dr. Mate says that it was not a gray whale, but was in fact a sperm whale.] Because all Oregon beaches are under the jurisdiction of the State Parks and Recreation Department, [http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/ Oregon State Archives] . Oregon Secretary of State, Archives Division, 1998. [http://bluebook.state.or.us/state/executive/Parks_Recreation/parks_recreation_history.htm State Parks and Recreation Department - Agency History] In the " [http://bluebook.state.or.us/ Oregon Blue Book] " online. Accessed September 22, 2006.] responsibility for disposing of the carcass fell upon the Oregon Highway Division (now known as the Oregon Department of Transportation, or ODOT), a sister agency.The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is the parent department of both agencies.] After consulting with officials at the United States Navy, they decided that it would be best to remove the whale in the same way they would remove a boulder and, on November 12, used half a ton of dynamite on it. They thought burying the whale would be ineffective, as it would soon be uncovered, and they believed the use of dynamite would cause an explosion that would disintegrate the whale into pieces small enough for scavengers to clear up. The engineer in charge of the operation, George Thornton, was recorded as stating that one set of charges might not be enough and more might be needed. Thornton later explained that he was chosen to remove the whale because the district engineer, Dale Allen, had gone hunting.Report by Paul Linnman (KATU TV), transcribed by Hackstadt, J.; Hackstadt, S. [http://www.theexplodingwhale.com/evidence/resources/transcript/ Annotated transcript of the video] . theexplodingwhale.com Accessed January 8, 2007.] cite web | last = Mikkelson | first = Barbara| coauthors = Mikkelson, David P.| date= 2000-03-19 | url = http://www.snopes.com/critters/disposal/whale.htm | work = Critter Country | title = Thar She Blows! | publisher = snopes.com | accessdate = 2007-01-08]

The resulting explosion was caught on film by television photographer Doug Brazil for a story reported by news reporter Paul Linnman of KATU-TV in Portland, Oregon. In his alliterative voiceover, Linnman joked that "land-lubber newsmen" became "land-"blubber" newsmen", for "the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds." The explosion caused large pieces of blubber to land some distance away from the beach, some of which caused heavy damage to a nearby car. The explosion disintegrated only some of the whale, most of which remained on the beach for the Oregon Highway Division workers to clear away.

At the end of his news story, Paul Linnman noted that "It might be concluded that should a whale ever be washed ashore in Lane County again, those in charge will not only remember what to do, they'll certainly remember what "not" to do." It was reported in the ODOT's employee newspaper, "TranScript", that when 41 sperm whales beached nearby in 1979, state parks officials burned and buried them. [http://tafkac.org/animals/exploding.whale/son_of_blubber.html "Son of blubber"] . Oregon Department of Transportation employee newspaper, "TranScript", July 1994. Accessed January 8, 2007.] Today, beach managers tow dead beached whales to the open sea. This is done mainly for safety reasons, as the rotting carcasses have been known to attract sharks and so become a danger to beach users.

For several years, the story of the exploding whale was commonly disbelieved and thought to be an urban legend. However, it was brought to widespread public attention by popular writer Dave Barry in his "Miami Herald" column of May 20, 1990, when he reported that he had footage of the event. Barry wrote, "Here at the Institute we watch it often, especially at parties." Some time later the Oregon State Highway division started to receive calls from the media after a shortened version of the article was distributed on bulletin boards under the title "The Farside Comes To Life In Oregon". However, the piece did not explain that the event had happened approximately twenty five years previously and whoever had copied Barry's article neglected to include the authorship of the piece. Dave Barry says that on a fairly regular basis someone forwards him the "authorless" column and suggests he write something about the described incident. [Barry 1996, pp. 164-65] Due to these oversights, an article in the ODOT's "TranScript" notes that

cquote|"We started getting calls from curious reporters across the country right after the electronic bulletin board story appeared," said Ed Schoaps, public affairs coordinator for the Oregon Department of Transportation. "They thought the whale had washed ashore recently, and were hot on the trail of a governmental blubber flub-up. They were disappointed that the story has twenty five years of dust on it."

Schoaps has fielded calls from reporters and the just plain curious in Oregon, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts. "The Wall Street Journal" called, and Washington, D.C.-based "Governing" magazine covered the immortal legend of the beached whale in its June issue. And the phone keeps ringing. "I get regular calls about this story," Schoaps said. His phone has become the blubber hotline for ODOT, he added. "It amazes me that people are still calling about this story after nearly twenty five years."

The footage that was referred to in the article, from KATU for the news story reported by Paul Linnman, resurfaced later as a video file on several websites and became a reasonably well-known and popular Internet meme.Steven Hackstadt, [http://www.theexplodingwhale.com/#evidence The Evidence] , TheExplodingWhale.com Accessed November 7, 2005; [http://perp.com/whale/ The Infamous Exploding Whale] perp.com, Accessed June 6, 2005).] These websites attracted criticism from upset people who complained that they were making fun of acts of animal cruelty, even though the whale was already dead. Their critical emails were subsequently published by the bemused site webmasters.cite web|url=http://www.perp.com/whale/letters.html|title=The Infamous Exploding Whale: Letters|accessdate=2008-02-23|quote=As you might imagine, the whale receives a lot of email. However, seeing as how it's DEAD, it can't respond. (What are all you people thinking?)]

The story of Oregon's exploding whale was widely known on Usenet for quite some time and was in particular discussed on alt.folklore.urban, a newsgroup devoted to urban legends. The incident, including a complete copy of Barry's article, was recorded in the newsgroup's 1991 FAQ, then maintained by Peter van der Linden, where it was marked as "Tb" (believed true, but not conclusively proven).Peter van der Linden, [http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.folklore.urban/msg/2311d952c25e2bd6?output=gplain Well, I'll be FAQ'ed.] , Google Groups, June 28, 1991. Accessed June 6, 2005.] In 1992, after newsgroup poster "snopes" tried to verify whether this was true or not, the newsgroup received confirmation that it was a true story and marked it as true.David P. Mikkelson, et al., [http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.folklore.urban/browse_frm/thread/8cca1fc876fa30ed/a93e28d689a2817c#a93e28d689a2817c Whale Blow Up] , Google Groups, January 1992. Accessed June 6, 2005.]

Tainan, Taiwan

A second whale explosion occurred on January 26, 2004, in Tainan City, Taiwan. In this incident, a buildup of gas inside a decomposing sperm whale, measuring 17 m (55 ft 9 in) long and weighing 50 tons, caused it to burst. The older bull whale had died after becoming beached on the southwestern coast of Taiwan, and it had taken more than 13 hours, three large cranes, and 50 workers to shift the beached sperm whale onto the back of a truck.

While the whale was being moved, "Taiwan News" reported that "a large crowd of more than 600 local Yunlin residents and curiosity seekers, along with vendors selling snack food and hot drinks, braved the cold temperature and chilly wind to watch workmen try to haul away the dead marine leviathan".Jason Pan, " Sperm whale explodes in Tainan City", "eTaiwan News", January 27, 2004 (accessed June 6, 2005).] Professor Wang Chien-ping had ordered the whale be moved to the Sutsao Wild Life Reservation Area after he had been refused permission to perform a post-mortem at the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan. The whale was being transported on the back of a truck through the center of Tainan from the university laboratory to the preserve when the explosion occurred. However, it did not stop researchers from performing a necropsy on the animal.

The explosion was reported to have splattered blood and whale entrails over surrounding shop-fronts, bystanders, and cars. BBC News Online interviewed an unnamed Taiwanese local who said, "What a stinking mess. This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful." [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3437455.stm "Whale explodes in Taiwanese city"] . "BBC News", January 29, 2004. Accessed January 8, 2007. ]

Over the course of about one year, Professor Wang completed a bone display from the remains of the whale's rotting dead body. The assembled specimen and some preserved organs and tissues have been on display in the Taijiang Cetacean Museum since April 8, 2005.

Other incidents

A stranded whale in Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, also decayed until it exploded. Locals say that its blubber "hung in the trees for weeks."cite book |last= Spalding |first= David A.E. |title= Whales of the West Coast |publisher= Harbour Publishing |year= 1998 |isbn= 1-55017-199-2 |pages= 118-121]

Whale corpses are regularly disposed of through the use of explosion; however, the whales are usually first towed out to sea. Government-sanctioned explosions have occurred in both South Africa and Iceland.

A number of controlled explosions have been made in South Africa. Explosives were used to kill a beached humpback whale 40 km (24 miles) west of Port Elizabeth on August 6, 2001,Timofei Byelo, " [http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/2001/08/08/12005.html Explosives used to blow up whale in South Africa] ," "Pravda". (accessed June 6, 2005).] while a Southern Right Whale that beached near Cape Town on 15 September 2005 was killed by authorities through detonation. In this instance authorities said that the whale could not have been saved, and that the use of explosives in such cases was recommended by the International Whaling Commission. [ [http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/beached-whale-killed-with-explosives/2005/09/15/1126377408417.html "Beached whale killed with explosives".] "Sydney Morning Herald", September 15, 2005. Accessed January 8, 2007.] A few weeks after the August 6th explosion near Port Elizabeth, the carcass of a second humpback was dragged out to sea and explosives were used to break it into pieces so it would not pose a hazard to shipping. [http://www.dispatch.co.za/2001/08/22/easterncape/AHUMPBAC.HTM "Stranded humpback dies"] . "Dispatch.co.za", August 22, 2001. Accessed January 8, 2007. ] Yet another explosion was performed in Bonza Bay on September 20, 2004, when an adult humpback whale beached and died. In order to sink the whale, authorities towed it out to sea, affixed explosives to it, and set them off from a distance. [http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/general/0,2172,88173,00.html "Beached whale towed, blown up at sea".] "SABCnews.com", September 20, 2004. Accessed January 8, 2007.]

A whale carcass adrift in the Icelandic harbour of Hafnarfjörður was split in two by a controlled explosion on June 5, 2005. The remains were dragged out to sea; however, they soon drifted back, and eventually had to be tied down. [http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/frett.html?nid=1142126 "Hvalhræ dregið út á haf og síðan aftur upp í fjöru".] mbl.is, June 5, 2005 Accessed June 6, 2005.]

ee also

* Beached whale
* Exploding animal
* Tay whale

Notes

References

* Adams, Douglas (1995). "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (reissue edition). Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-39180-2.
* Barry, Dave (1991). "Dave Barry Talks Back", pp. 21–24. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-517-58868-0.
*

* Jennings, Paul (1995). "Uncanny!: Even More Surprising Stories". USA: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-037576-7.
* Linnman, Paul; Doug Brazil (2003). "The Exploding Whale: And Other Remarkable Stories from the Evening News". Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company. ISBN 1-55868-743-2.
* O'Brian, Patrick (1937). "Two's Company." In "The Oxford Annual for Boys" (Ed. Herbert Strang), pp. 5–18. London: Oxford University Press.
* [http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=336792006 "Rotting whale's carcase may have to be blown up"] . "The Scotsman", March 6, 2006. Accessed January 8, 2007.
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050313001443/http://www.dawn.com/2001/08/07/int7.htm "SA police blow up stranded whale"] . "Dawn: the Internet edition", August 7, 2001. Accessed January 8, 2007.
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=4096586&p1=0 "Thar She Blows! Dead whale explodes"] . "MSNBC", January 29, 2004. Accessed January 8, 2007.
* Tour, Jim (1995). "Obliterating Animal Carcasses With Explosives," "Tech Tips", Jan. 1995, US Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service Technology & Development Program.

External links

* [http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/seeit/020904exploding_whale.wvx Exploding Whale news piece by Paul Linnman] (.wmv) from KATU 2
* [http://www.theexplodingwhale.com/evidence/the-video/ Exploding Whale news piece by Paul Linnman] (multiple versions using QuickTime) from TheExplodingWhale.com
* [http://perp.com/whale/ PERP Exploding Whale video page]
* [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/photo/2004/01/27/2003109702 Taipei Times image of an exploded whale]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM4pgnkGUgE Exploding Whale Animated Short (Youtube)]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Exploding animal — This article covers incidents of animal explosion. This uncommon event may arise through natural causes or human activity.One of the most famous category of cases, well known because of footage being spread across the Internet, relates to… …   Wikipedia

  • Exploding toad — An exploding toad occurs when a crow, hunting for toad liver, attacks a puffed up toad. The phenomenon was first noticed in April 2005 in districts of Hamburg, Germany and near a lake at Låsby, Denmark, dubbed The Pond of Death. No other animals… …   Wikipedia

  • Sperm Whale — Taxobox name = Sperm WhaleMSW3 Cetacea | id=14300131 ] status = VU status system = iucn3.1 status ref = [IUCN2008|assessors=Taylor, B.L., Baird, R., Barlow, J., Dawson, S.M., Ford, J., Mead, J.G., Notarbartolo di Sciara, G., Wade, P. Pitman,… …   Wikipedia

  • Beached whale — A beached whale is a whale which has become stranded on land, usually on a beach. Beaching is often fatal for whales, as they become dehydrated and die. Some die when their lungs are suffocated under their own weight or drown when high tides… …   Wikipedia

  • USS Whale (SS-239) — USS Whale (SS 239), a Gato class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the whale, an extremely large, aquatic mammal that is fishlike in form. Her keel was laid down on 28 June 1941 by the Mare Island Naval… …   Wikipedia

  • Sperm whale — Sperm Whale[1] Size compared to an average human …   Wikipedia

  • White whale — White White (hw[imac]t), a. [Compar. {Whiter} (hw[imac]t [ e]r); superl. {Whitest}.] [OE. whit, AS. hw[imac]t; akin to OFries. and OS. hw[=i]t, D. wit, G. weiss, OHG. w[=i]z, hw[=i]z, Icel. hv[=i]tr, Sw. hvit, Dan. hvid, Goth. hweits, Lith.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Взрыв кита — спонтанная либо искусственная детонация туши выбросившегося на берег кита. Документально подтверждённые случаи взрыва животных встречаются довольно редко, к наиболее известным относятся взрывы китов в США и на Тайване, которые широко освещались в …   Википедия

  • Explosiones de animales — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Las explosiones de animales pueden ser debidas a causas naturales o a la intervención humana. Aunque estos acontecimientos son raros, hay varios casos documentados de una amplia variedad de animales. También existen… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Explosión de ballenas — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda La explosión de ballenas se ha documentado en dos notables ocasiones, así como en varias veces menos conocidas. La explosión más famosa ocurrió en los Estados Unidos en Florence (Oregón) en 1970, cuando un cachalote… …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”