this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2025
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Can someone please elaborate on the exploding whale?
Wikipedia is unusually cryptic on the subject in the article and Youtube won't let me open the linked videos for some reason...
Oh, man, have I got a story for you...
https://youtu.be/V6CLumsir34
If that link doesn't work... In 1970 an 8 ton dead gray whale washed up on the beach in Florence.
Now, in Oregon, all the beaches are public beaches, under the control of the highway department, and they didn't know how to remove a dead whale.
So they packed it with 1/2 a ton of dynamite and blew it up thinking the seagulls and crabs would eat the bits remaining.
I'm so excited for the person you're telling about this. Imagine seeing that video again for the first time?
I remember clear as day downloading this video from Limewire and the incredible majesty of understanding that people are, in fact, this stupid.
shit, my grandma was there. she's got pictures.
For real?
Has she ever mentioned what the F people were thinking at the time? This seems like a solution that only a 1980's cartoon would have come up with.
she was thinking "oh look a whale" and then "oh look WHALE" as i remember her telling it. lots of jokes about umbrellas and knowing where to stand.
Granny is based.
gran grew up on a farm. she's seen shit
I've finally understood Monty Python. They were just trying to act like regular Americans
The strangest part is that this is not the only time humans have blown up a whale carcass, and it's just gone everywhere.
Here's a modern folk song about it happening in Novia Scotia, lol
An important note: it didn't work very well. It blew the whale into large chucks, much larger than they were hoping for. iirc one chunk landed on a reporter's car, crushing it.
My favorite part of the video is the little old lady voice going "Here come pieces of... whale!"
It spattered whale gore all over the witless witnesses
Oh my god, I totally love that news report!
Has some distinct Monty-Python-vibes!
Did that guy ever get compensated for his smashed car? What a crazy idea.
Cue Farmers... "We've seen a lot of things..."
This is more like the mayham guy.
"I'm the 8 ton whale that washed up on your beach and when the local highway department tries to make me go away with 1/2 ton of TNT, your cut rate insurance might not cover a 700 pound slab of me trashing your passenger compartment."
The blast blasted blubber beyond believable bounds.
i think that might be a west coast thing because it's a California thing too. Would Washington State chime in please?
History on the Oregon law here, passed in 3 B.W. (before whale).
https://www.opb.org/news/article/history-oregon-tom-mccall-public-beaches/
While California has public beaches, they have private beaches as well. In Oregon the entire coastline is public.
https://www.californiabeaches.com/california-state-beaches/
Looks like WA is the same, public/private mix.
https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/coastalatlas/
those "private beaches" in california are public beaches that landowners with land near the beach keep trying to steal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJHKB4arFNQ
Warning: It's catchy af.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPuaSY0cMK8
Dead whales (the huge variants) at a certain state of decomposition can literally explode due to gaseous buildup. Maybe related to that?
In this case it was human intervention.
With dynamite.