What do they do with beached whales?

zbeckabee

Well, in my case they just leave me alone while I am sunning...however, if you are talking about the critters: If the critter is alive, humans may try to save it and usually this does not work out. After a beached whale dies, it can become a source of disease and pollution. As they are very large, such corpses are difficult to move. There are reports of some cases where humans tried to blow up the carcass with explosives, with unexpected side effects to spectators. A whale carcass should not be consumed. In 2002, fourteen Alaskans ate muktuk (whale blubber) from a beached whale, and eight of them developed symptoms of botulism, two of them requiring mechanical ventilation[3]. This is of course a problem in common with any spoiled meat, or meat taken from an already-dead animal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beached_whale Jul 07 06, 9:03 AM

avallon

In New Zealand, the local Maori will often take the bones of dead whales for carving purposes. I'm sorry I don't have a reference website for you, but you should be able to find something easily enough. Jul 07 06, 1:22 PM

starNumberA399

I don't quite remember in what magazine I saw a short article on this very subject (I think it was MAXIM) but I do remember reading about this and seeing photos. A large hole is excavated on the beach next to the dead whale and then the whale is rolled into the hole and buried. All of this is accomplished with heavy construction equipment (earth movers, tractors, etc.). Good info on the muktuk, I must remember to make sure the next time I eat whale bluber that it comes from a fresh kill! Jul 09 06, 12:20 AM

Allergic2Life

It was reported in the ODOT's employee newspaper, TranScript, that 41 sperm whales beached nearby in 1979; state parks officials burned and buried them.[4] Today, beach managers tow dead beached whales to the open sea. This is done mainly for safety reasons, as the rotting corpses have been known to attract sharks and so become a danger to beach users. On September 30, 2004, an adult humpback whale beached itself and died at Bonza Bay beach in East London, South Africa. In order to sink the whale, authorities towed it out to sea and set off explosives affixed to it from a distance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale Jul 09 06, 4:58 AM

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