It's been half a century since that fateful day now etched into the psyche of Oregonians and many others around the world. Half. A. Century. 50 years. Happy 50th Exploding Whale Day! Sadly, an explosion of another kind –  Covid-19 – is having a dampening effect on celebrations around this momentous occasion. Some notable events: On Thursday, November 12, the  Oregon Historical Society  will host a conversation with Paul Linnman, the television reporter whose hilarious, deadpan report is now famous around the world. The virtual program is free and open to the public, though registration is required. See  The 50th Anniversary of Blasted Blubber: A Conversation with Paul Linnman  for more information. In addition, there will be small, physically-distanced gathering at a brewpub in Florence on November 14. See  Oregon Coast's Exploding Whale 50th Celebrated in Florence, Online  for details. There will be a virtual gathering on Facebook where you can show your support and post a tr

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the EXPLODING WHALE! : In celebration of this explosive 50th anniversary, Gary and Shannon had the honor of interviewing the legendary Oregon television and radio broadcaster,  Paul Linnman , about the event that blasted both blubber  and  Paul’s career skyward!

Hello Exploding Whale fans!  We're excited to announce the all-new version of TheExplodingWhale.com . This site has been simplified and is now optimized for viewing on the wide range of devices on which we all consume content these days.  Behind the scenes, we've switched from a custom-themed Wordpress platform to the new Google Sites platform. The blog has been deemphasized since most breaking news is covered on our social media channels these days: Twitter -  @Exploding_Whale Facebook -  @TheExplodingWhale YouTube -  The Exploding Whale Finally, we've elevated the core content that makes TheExplodingWhale.com the web's most comprehensive source of information on exploding whales and related stories.

  It’s the anniversary of that fateful day in 1970 that changed the world forever. Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter accounts for the latest links to events and articles related to the anniversary: Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/TheExplodingWhale/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Exploding_Whale

Here at TheExplodingWhale.com, we love seeing people inspired by our favorite topic. Recently, banjoist, guitarist, and songwriter  Dan Tanz  was reminded of Oregon’s exploding whale by a friend, who later passed away. Inspiration comes in many forms. In memory of his friend, Dan did what comes naturally and wrote a song. He posted it to his YouTube channel,  Songwriter Circle .  And so without further ado, we present “The Exploding Whale Song,” performed and sung by Dan Tanz.

  We’ll be covering all the festivities of the 45th anniversary of Oregon’s Exploding Whale! Don’t miss out on the fun! ‘A whale of a problem’: 45th anniversary of a dynamite idea   –   KVAL Happy 45th Anniversary, Exploding Whale   –   EarthTouch ‘My car!’: Eugene man recalls ‘whale of a deal’ family got on car in 1970   –   KMTR 45th anniversary of the infamous exploding whale   –   KATU Happy Exploding Whale Day!   –   The Portland Mercury Exploding-whale day: the 45th anniversary   –   Improbable Research Long before the viral video or ‘breaking the internet’, there was the exploding whale   –   9News (Australia)

Prolific singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens’ tour-only song “Exploding Whale” has made its way online. As Stevens says in the song, “Embrace the epic fail / Of my exploding whale.” Listen here first: Spin magazine and several other sites are also covering the release: Sufjan Stevens Shows Off His Electronic Side on ‘Exploding Whale’  – Spin Listen to Sufjan Stevens’ New Bonus Track, “Exploding Whale”   – Diffuser Sufjan Stevens Releases Non-Album Track “Exploding Whale”  – Pitchfork Sufjan Stevens shares new song “Exploding Whale” — listen  – Consequence of Sound

  Watch Charlize Theron Get Hit In The Face By An Exploding Whale On ‘Saturday Night Live’: “Saturday Night Live – Bikini Beach Party”  – NBC/Hulu

Two years ago, we brought you the  fascinating story  of some German and Swiss researchers who had investigated whether the carcasses of prehistoric “whales” (aka ichthyosaurs) ever exploded, which could explain why bone fossils are sometimes found scattered about instead of all together.  And today we have an update on their work. Here’s how we summarized their results in February 2012: In what has to be one of the most disappointing scientific results of the 21st century, the scientists conclude that ichthyosaur carcasses probably did not frequently explode and scatter bones. Rather, they conclude that dead prehistoric whale-like creatures would have sunk to the sea floor and would have only resurfaced when “they remained in shallow water above a certain temperature and at a low scavenging rate.” Subsequently, bone scattering would have supposedly occurred as the carcass floated around and decomposed gradually. Killjoys, we say! Here at TheExplodingWhale.com we simply refuse to allow

Long-time Register-Guard columnist Bob Welch, ardent fan of the Exploding Whale, wrote his last column on December 5, 2013. Bob’s many columns mentioning Oregon’s Exploding Whale have long been featured on this site. Bob wrote several columns that featured Oregon’s Exploding Whale prominently, but he also loved to weave in references to the Exploding Whale in columns that had nothing to do with it. While he’s leaving the newspaper business, he plans to remain active as a writer and speaker. And even though he didn’t work in a mention of the Exploding Whale in his final column, we here at the TheExplodingWhale.com still wish him all the best. Because he was such a fan of the Exploding Whale, it only seems fitting that we memorialize his final column on our site — even though it doesn’t mention our favorite topic! RG columnist Bob Welch retires (12/5/2013)   – TheExplodingWhale.com Links to his interview with KLCC and the original RG column appear below: Bob Welch Retires as a Columnist 

On November 26, 2013, the carcass of a dead sperm whale violently exploded in the Faroe Islands when a marine biologist began cutting it open. Four sperm whales became stranded between the islands of Streymoy and Eysturoy. Two of the whales eventually died. A few days later, one of the dead whales was towed to a nearby abandoned whaling station ( Við Áir ) so the bones could be harvested for a future museum display. However, as they started to cut into the carcass, a violent explosion erupted from the whale’s abdomen spraying blood and entrails for many yards and nearly injuring  Bjarni Mikkelsen , the biologist who was doing the cutting. The story has been memorialized on our website here:  Faroe Islands (11/26/2013)

Today — November 12, 2013 — marks the 43rd anniversary of Oregon’s Exploding Whale. So, Happy Exploding Whale Day to you! Of course, we’re all missing  George Thornton , the Oregon highway engineer most responsible for the infamous blubber blast.  He passed away  just over two weeks ago. Alas, life goes on. And occasionally we even learn something new, such as  this gem from The Oregonian  which had escaped me until today: November 12, 1970. A day that will live in infamy. And hilarity. Call it Infalarity. Or Hilaramy. Whatever. But 43 years ago today, on November 12, 1970, at 3:45 p.m., the famous Exploding Whale – yes, THAT exploding whale — was blown up on the Oregon coast, in Florence. Meanwhile, in Portland, some 132 miles away as the exploding whale blubber flies, Tonya Harding was born. Yes, that  Tonya Harding . Even if you don’t care about Tonya, you need to click through so you can read the first-ever set of “Tonya-and-the-Exploding-Whale” limericks! Tuesday’s Edge: Tonya and

George Thornton, the highway engineer who supervised the detonation of 20 cases of dynamite in an attempt to dispose of a dead sperm whale on the Oregon Coast, died on Sunday, October 27, 2013, in Medford, Oregon. He was 84 years old. Thornton worked for the Oregon Highway Division (later renamed the Oregon Department of Transportation) from 1947 to 1984. He retired several years before the Exploding Whale story became an internet sensation thanks to an  article written by Dave Barry .  Many years later,  Paul Linnman , the KATU TV news reporter who covered the Exploding Whale story, reached out to Thornton while writing his book on the subject ( The Exploding Whale and Other Remarkable Stories from the Evening News ). Thornton declined to be interviewed, saying only, “No, it seems like whenever I talk to the media, it blows up in my face.” We’ve archived several related articles: Man behind the exploding whale debacle dies at 84   – KATU Exploding-whale engineer George Thornton has di

Here it is folks — a brand new tribute song for the Exploding Whale! Click the play button on the embedded SoundCloud player below and then read on to learn about the artist and his inspiration…. Johnny Stuka’s SoundCloud profile reads as follows: Johnny Stuka is the pilot of a stolen Stuka Dive Bomber that crashed into the English Channel in 1999. Fortunately his life raft inflated. Unfortunately, his whistle sunk to the bottom. Since then he has bobbed on the currents, occassionally sighting the white cliffs but always whilst being driven back out to sea by weather. More recently he has sighted France but is unsure how close he should go. Behind the cryptic myth of Johnny Stuka is London-based singer/songwriter John Harry Littleton-Stuka. John has played with numerous bands and musicians over the years, including London-based Stuka Dive Bomber during the 1990s and more recently the gypsy jazz outfit, Le Chutneys. But Littleton-Stuka says he’s always had a special place in his heart f

  Just a quick note to wish you all a… Happy 42nd Exploding Whale Day!

The body of a dead and rotting Bryde’s whale, inflated from the gases of its decomposition, was mistaken for a capsized ship as it drifted toward the South African coast. Shark warning in southern Cape   – News24 Whale carcass washes up on rocks   – Independent Online Whale carcass washes ashore in S.Africa   – AFP S. Africa issues shark warning around washed-up whale   – AFP

 

Welcome to the second installment of  Whales in the News : 50 Years of KATU TV: A whale of a story that became a legend KATU, the Portland, Oregon, TV station that originally broadcasted Paul Linnman’s famous news report on the original Exploding Whale, celebrated their 50th anniversary on March 15, 2012. In honor of the event, they showed Linnman’s original report and interviewed him afterwards. Rare Whale Swims Up West Coast to Russian Home Varvara, a rare western Pacific gray whale, is the first to be documented all the way to Baja Mexico, where most California gray whales breed and give birth. Now she appears to be on the move again, expected to head to feeding grounds off Russia’s Sakhalin Island. ‘Whale Wars’ spin-off coming in April The Sea Shepherds head to the Faroe Islands to take on the slaughter of pilot whales, and Animal Planet cameras are there to capture the action. “Whale Wars: Viking Shores” premieres on Animal Planet on April 27 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Whale barely makes a

Welcome to the first edition of  Whales in the News  here on TheExplodingWhale.com! In this series of posts, we’ll be aggregating recent whale-related news and articles for your entertainment and education. And so without further ado, here are some of the top whale stories from the past week: Giant squid eyes are sperm whale defence An interesting article about how and why giant squid eyes may have evolved to be three times as large as any other known creature. I know this may come as a shock, but it turns out that being able to detect your one and only predator — and for giant squid that would be giant sperm whales — from far away increases your chances of survival. As the authors state, there appears to be a “powerful evolutionary pressure towards developing effective eyes.” It all seems rather obvious, but the article is a good read nonetheless. Japan Whale Catch Falls Short Sea Shepherd anti-whaling activists have once again significantly disrupted Japanese whaling in the Southern

In the United Kingdom, whales are considered “ royal fish ,” and as such, they belong to the Crown upon being caught or landing upon the English shore. The rules evidently apply to dead and rotting beached whales, too.  In the BBC News article  What happens after a whale is beached? , reporter Caroline Lowbridge describes how beached whales are (supposed to be) handled in the UK. British law goes so far as to specify that the King gets the head and Queen gets the tail. Lest you think the Queen comes out behind on the deal, the queen “received the tail in order to be supplied with whalebone for her corsets and stays,” according to Wikipedia. (However, there is some confusion here;  Moby Dick  author Herman Melville claimed that “whalebone” was actually baleen, which comes from the  mouths  of certain whales.) Anyway, it’s not clear to what use the King may have put the whale’s head. The article covers a number of other whale incidents in the UK and then wraps up — as every good whale ar

Here’s a book that may be of interest to Exploding Whale aficionados:  The Life Story of a Chilean Sea Blob and Other Matters of Importance  by  Theodore Carter . For those of you that may be unfamiliar with the term, a “sea blob” — also known as a “ globster ” — is an “unidentified organic mass that washes up on the shoreline of an ocean or other body of water.” The title of the book refers to a  highly publicized event in 2003  where one such “organic mass” washed up on the coast of Chile. Biologists were unable to readily determine what the “blob” was, and the world had to wait nearly a year before DNA testing revealed it to be the remains of a sperm whale.  Many such events  have occurred over the decades with the remains often misidentified as sea monsters, giant octopuses, or modern-day plesiosaurs. Carter has apparently worked the Chilean sea blob into a collection of short stories, which his publisher describes as follows: Much as Theodore Carter’s title sea blob proves a chall

Ichthyosaurs were giant marine reptiles that existed between 90 and 245 million years ago. This was, in case you weren’t sure,  before  the Internet. But still, one wonders — if the interweb were around during the Jurassic period, do you think there would have been an Exploding Ichthyosaur website? Recently, a group of scientists published a paper that could help answer that question. I received an email from one of the Swiss researchers: Subject: a new publication about “exploding whales” Date: February 4, 2012 10:28:01 AM PST Hi there, yesterday our paper about “exploding whales” was published: “Float, explode or sink: postmortem fate of lung-breathing marine vertebrates” Best regards from Switzerland It’s not the first time the Exploding Whale has been the inspiration for an academic pursuit. Fellow University of Puget Sound alumnus Chris van Vechten’s senior thesis,  “Rendered, Redeemed & Transformed: The Social History of Whale Carcass Disposal on Northwest Shores“  [ PDF ], w

Happy Exploding Whale Day! Today is the 41st anniversary of Oregon’s Exploding Whale!

Inflatable whales  gathered around Sydney Harbor, Australia, to mark the start of the annual whale migration season in that area.

A popular beach on the Washington coast became home to a dead gray whale, and the state moved quickly to bury the carcass before scores of clam diggers were to arrive just two days later. The 38-foot female was the third whale to wash up in the area in recent years. In the report linked below, the reporter makes explicit mention of Oregon’s Exploding Whale: “I think it’s the best thing they can do, unless they can take it out there and let the fish eat it or whatever,” she said. That’s wouldn’t work; it would just come back with the tide. And everyone knows that blowing it up is a lousy idea. They tried that, with disastrous results some years back in Florence, Oregon. Media links: Article:  ‘The most horrible smell you’ve smelled’: Dead whale washes ashore   – KOMO News Video:  ‘The most horrible smell you’ve smelled’: Dead whale washes ashore   – KOMO News Archived copy of the video from the Exploding Whale video portal on YouTube:

All 40th anniversary content has been archived on our new   40th anniversary   page. This includes several news articles, still images, and three videos. 40th anniversary articles & videos   – TheExplodingWhale.com

Friday, November 12, 2010, marks the 40th anniversary of Oregon’s Exploding Whale. Please take a moment to reflect.  Dynamite idea 40 years ago blew up into a whale of a story ( video )  – KVAL ‘We almost didn’t get it on air’  ( video )  – KATU 40th Anniversary of the Exploding Whale  (includes video) – KATU AM Northwest 40th Anniversary of Oregon Coast Exploding Whale Film Clip  – BeachConnection.net The 40th anniversary of the funniest thing to ever happen in Oregon, and the lessons learned  – Statesman Journal And be sure to join the  virtual celebration on Facebook ! The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds. – Paul Linnman, TV news reporter, Nov. 12, 1970

Details are few, but a humpback whale was euthanized with explosives on September 29, 2010, after stranding on a reef near Struisbaai Harbour, South Africa. It was determined that the 30-foot whale was sick and had little chance of survival. Links to a couple news articles are available on our permanent archive page: South Africa (9/29/2010)   – TheExplodingWhale.com

  Thanks to reader David R., we’ve learned about a stranded humpback whale that was euthanized via an explosive charge. The sick 31-foot, 12-ton whale had been stuck in Princess Royal Harbor in southwestern Australia for two weeks. Authorities imposed a 1-km exclusion zone around the whale before detonating a charge directly above the whale’s brain. Officials plan to bury the carcass. Stranded whale in Albany’s Princess Royal Harbour euthanased  ( video )  – PerthNow Stranded whale blown up   – WA Today Stranded whale in WA killed with explosives   – PerthNow Blown Up: Stranded Whale Is Put To Death   – Sky News Stranded whale goes out with a bang   – Sydney Morning Herald Stranded whale to be blown up in harbour   – ABC News Explosives to be used to kill whale   – United Press International Watch:  news video  from Perth Now View our permanent archive page here: Australia (9/2/2010)   – TheExplodingWhale.com