Out of the left field

[Rockdoc]

Nothing to do with Ventures, but thought you guys might like to see what kind of weekend I've had. Although a geologist by profession, I'm also local elected politican official. Reports began coming in about a stranded whale in one of our bays on Thursday. So we began to mobilise crews to be ready. From previous experience its normally a dolphin or small whale, although any stranding here is rare. You can imagine our surprise when we turned up to be greeted by an almost full grown bull sperm whale, all 39 tons of it! I'm sure if you google Whale on beach in the UK or something like it there's a lot more info on it. Suffice to say its taken three days to try and remove the whale with as much dignity as this kind of operation can afford. Nonetheless, a very sad end to such a noble giant of the deep and a personal privelige to stand next to such a massive warrior of the deep.

I've added some pics, there are many others for those with strong stomachs!

I'm the one in the orange jacket and green hat

 

Cheers

[Dave77459]

That's quite a job!

 

I hope you didn't have this experience. Perhaps my favorite video, ever.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vmnq5dBF7Y]YouTube - The Infamous Exploding Whale[/ame]

[BIG TOM]

I have always wondered if they are sick and do this when they know they are going to die?... What a tragic ending to a magnificent animal...

[Rockdoc]

No Dave, I saw that video during my quick check on google on 'how to dispose of a whale' I think we would have splattered about 300 people if we had gone for that option! We did have a long think about how best to dispose of it. Someone even suggested towing it over to the french side during the night and putting a sticker with the words Agincor on it!!!! In the end our only option was to cut it into four sections and send it to landfill.

As to the why? Yes, many here believe they beach themselves to get the end over quickly. This one appears to have starved as there was nothing in the stomach. We have plenty of fish here, just the wrong kind. A sad end either way.