- Exploding whale
Exploding whales have been documented on two notable occasions, as well as several lesser-known ones. The most famous
explosion occurred in theUnited States at Florence,Oregon , in 1970, when a deadsperm whale (originally reported as agray 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 Americanhumorist 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 apost-mortem examination. Exploding whales have been written about and documented by several well known authors.Incidents
Documented cases of
exploding animal s 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, amarine biologist at theHatfield Marine Science Center inNewport who was there that day. Dr. Mate says that it was not agray whale , but was in fact asperm 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 theOregon Department of Transportation , or ODOT), a sister agency.TheOregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is the parent department of both agencies.] After consulting with officials at theUnited States Navy , they decided that it would be best to remove the whale in the same way they would remove aboulder and, on November 12, used half a ton ofdynamite 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 forscavenger s 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 gonehunting .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 ofKATU -TV inPortland, Oregon . In his alliterativevoiceover , Linnman joked that "land-lubber newsmen" became "land-"blubber" newsmen", for "the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds." The explosion caused large pieces ofblubber 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
shark s 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 writerDave 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 thatcquote|"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. , andMassachusetts . "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 onalt.folklore.urban , anewsgroup devoted to urban legends. The incident, including a complete copy of Barry's article, was recorded in the newsgroup's 1991FAQ , 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 decomposingsperm 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 marineleviathan ".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 theSutsao Wild Life Reservation Area after he had been refused permission to perform apost-mortem at theNational 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 anecropsy 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 andIceland .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 ofPort 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 aSouthern Right Whale that beached nearCape 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 theInternational 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 inBonza Bay on September 20, 2004, when an adulthumpback 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.]
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