Exploding WhalesDangerous Species In The World

There have been two notable documented incidents of exploding whales, as well as several lesser-known ones.

In November 1970, a 14 m (45 ft), eight-ton sperm whale died as a result of beaching itself near Florence, Oregon. At the time, the Oregon Highway Division had jurisdiction over beaches and was given the task of removing the whale carcass. After consulting with officials at the US 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, they used half a ton of dynamite to remove it. This decision was made because 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.

The resulting explosion was caught on film by television photographer Doug Brazil for a story reported by news reporter Paul Linnman for KATU-TV in Portland, OR. In his 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 quite some distance away from the beach, resulting in a smashed car. The explosion did not disintegrate most of the whale, which remained on the beach for the Oregon Highway Division workers to clear away.

The other well-reported case of an exploding whale 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 post-mortem examination.

Exploding Whales

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