The small town of Trout River in Newfoundland, Canada, was in big trouble: a dead blue whale was stranded on the beach.
Experts rushed to find a way, hoping to get rid of the 170,000 kilograms of corpse before it exploded.
The news about this behemoth caused a sensation. There were hundreds of news reports alone, a hashtag named “#explodingwhale” and the website “Has the whale exploded? “
But no one knows when the whale will explode (if it does). Newfoundland News reporter Don Bradshaw said on Twitter that the whale carcass has begun to naturally frustrate.
To better understand the phenomenon of stranded whale explosions, National Geographic interviewed Andrew David Thaler , the creator of the whale explosion website . He is a marine biologist and runs a blog called Southern Fried Science .
What is the chance of a dead whale being washed up on the beach?
Whether dead or alive, it is not uncommon for marine mammals to get stranded. But large whales like blue whales (stranded) are much rarer, because there are very few blue whales left [in the world]. (Explore National Geographic Blue Whale Interactive Media .)
When the contents of its internal organs and stomach decompose, gas will begin to accumulate, but the skin and blubber of whales are very strong. The gas-filled part you see in the photo is the throat sac. Its original function is to fill the sea water and squeeze the sea water through the baleen (the keratin plate used by whales to filter food), so it can Under great pressure.
Whales will explode (usually) caused by man-made, whether it’s because bystanders want to climb up, want to get some souvenir from the dead body, or have a staff want to move the body, or want to discourage it through artificial means—for example The sperm whale that exploded in the Faroe Islands ( see video ). So never approach the dead whale.
What happens to the body of a whale when it dies in the sea?
If a whale dies in the sea, it will eventually sink. Whales are so big that scavengers cannot tear the whale carcasses apart, so they often sink to the bottom of the sea intact. The deep sea is usually a low-energy environment, so the appearance of a whole whale means that there is a large influx of food. (Related reading: Dead Whale Contains a Bounty of Life .)
There will be complete communities around these “whalefalls”. First, moving scavengers (such as large deep-sea sharks and hagfish, etc.) will come to eat the soft tissues and disassemble the carcass. Then, creatures such as Osedax mucofloris ( Osedax mucofloris ) will also appear, slowly breaking down the bones. ( Watch an animated video of “Whale Falling” .)
The whole process may take 30 years or more, so from an ecological point of view, the afterlife of whales is as important as their present life.
If there are dead whales stranded on the beach, what methods can nearby residents choose to deal with?
The best option is usually to bury it in situ. If you can’t bury it on the spot and want to remove it, it’s a headache. Whales are behemoths. In some cases, the damage to the coastline caused by the introduction of large-scale land handling machinery may be greater than leaving the whale carcass there to decompose naturally. (Related reading: A New, More Humane Way to Euthanize Stranded Whales .)
The news said residents complained that the body was smelly. What does the swollen dead whale smell like?
Imagine you expose a bottle of lard to the sun for several days. Then imagine that the smell is so strong that all your things are stained with the smell, and you can’t get rid of it. It will run into your nasal passages and linger for days. About six years ago, I participated in the autopsy of a right whale, and it turned out that my rompers still have that smell even now. The rotten whale carcass is one of the most unpleasant smells in the world.