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

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 r...

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 Column...

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...

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

 

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 wrap...

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 Cart...

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 Shore...

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

A British documentary titled “The Whale that Exploded in the Street,” will be airing in the United States on December 13 and 15 on the National Geographic channel (aka “NatGeo”) under the shortened title, “The Whale that Exploded.” The documentary explores the explosion of a 50-ton sperm whale carcass that was being transported through the Taiwan city of Tainan on a flatbed truck in January 2004. The explosion flooded a city street with gallons of blood and piles of intestines.  The documentary is of particular interest since the  producers asked for permission to use screenshots of this website’s page  documenting the event .  The show is schedule to air as part of NatGeo’s “ Wild ” series at the following times: December 13, 2008, at 8pm December 15, 2008, at 8am See the the  program’s page  on the  NatGeo TV  website for more information. Update:   Monsters and Critics  also a brief mention of the program.

This is just further proof that journalists can’t get enough of the Exploding Whale. When there’s nothing else to write about, they can always rely on the old “EW” to meet their deadline. Peter O’Neill, a writer for the  Timaru Herald  which is located in the  South Canterbury  region of New Zealand, recently wrote an article titled, “ I just don’t get the great fascination with whales .” The article basically contains a lot of aimless ramblings about whales. Here are a few excerpts so you know what I mean: We obviously like whales. And when I say “we”, I mean everyone except the Japanese and me. I don’t think [whales] are particularly pretty or even graceful. I mean, meerkats are cute, monkeys are clever, cheetahs are classy and albatross are graceful, but whales are … blobs. Maybe the [stranded] orca had sclerosis of the liver. Maybe it was a promiscuous whale with a sexually transmitted disease and had just been kicked out of its pod. With such inane commentary, O...

The  New Carissa  was a wood-chip freighter that ran aground on the Oregon coast during a storm in February 1999. Initial efforts to refloat and tow the ship back out to sea failed. As cracks developed in the hull, fuel oil began leaking out, and to avert an environmental disaster, officials decided to try burning off the several hundred thousand gallons of remaining fuel.  It is at this point that the tale of the  New Carissa  takes on an uncanny resemblance to the Exploding Whale. Officials decided to use over 600 gallons of napalm, 39 shaped charges, nearly 400 pounds of plastic explosives, and other incendiary devices to set the fuel ablaze. It took several attempts, but after 33 hours, between 165,000 and 255,000 gallons had burned off. Despite this, anywhere from 25,000 to 140,000 gallons of fuel oil and diesel are believed to have leaked out. In addition, the explosions and heat from the fire further compromised the structural integrity of the ship, event...

The carcass of a dead  minke whale  that washed up on the  west coast of England  is at risk of exploding as gases released by the rotting flesh collect inside the whale. Minke whales are common in the waters around the UK, but carcasses rarely wash up in this area. As a result, the dead leviathan has attracted numerous onlookers.  Scientists have been taking samples from the carcass and are set to release the build up of gas from the creature’s body to prevent it from exploding. Whale carcass washes up on beach   – BBC News Minke whale washed up   – Liverpool Echo Photos of the whale carcass Whale carcass washes up on beach Scientists from Liverpool University have been studying a whale which was washed up on the Merseyside coast. The nearly fully grown male minke whale was already dead when it was beached near Formby over the weekend. No one is sure how the creature died but the decaying carcass has become a macabre tourist attraction with hordes of ...

And now for the very best kind of “exploding” whale… From  BBC News : After 15 months of pregnancy, Qila the Vancouver Aquarium’s 12-year-old beluga whale has given birth to her first calf. The birth was captured live by television cameras. Qila was the first beluga whale to be conceived and born in a Canadian aquarium. She has remained in the aquarium with her mother Aurora, who is 21 years old.  BBC news also has a great  video of the birth .  Next, Jon Murray of  The Province  has a nice  gallery of photos : Finally, the  Vancouver Aquarium  has posted an official  announcement  of the birth as well as their own  video on YouTube : And if you just can’t get enough of this baby beluga, tune into the Vancouver Aquarium’s “ belugacam ” — not to be missed!

In a long-lost piece written from the perspective of happy homemaker Patricia Halsworthy, the venerable satirists at  The Onion  let loose on the “have fun or else” mentality of the modern family vacation in… “I Refuse To Let Some Beached Whale Ruin Our Family Outing” The story is relayed as Patricia’s side of a conversation between her and her family following their arrival at a popular beach destination. Husband, Eric, and kids, Joshua and Kylie, are less than thrilled when they realize that the otherwise gorgeous, pristine beach has been fouled by a huge, reeking dead (or possibly still dying?) whale. Patricia is determined to see that their guidebook getaway will carry on as planned. In fact, the whale is almost an afterthought in her nonstop ramblings about sunscreen, badminton, and “when I was your age” adages: Kids, I’m already worried about this sun. There’s not a cloud in the sky, and they say the sun is at its most damaging in the late morning. We should move into th...

A: When you use explosives to get rid of a dead one! Last week’s story of how the U.S. military shot down a satellite carrying toxic rocket fuel brought at least a couple comparisons to Oregon’s Exploding Whale. The military had lost control of the crippled satellite in late 2006 shortly after it was launched. The bus-sized hulk was finally threatening to fall out of orbit, and people’s lives were at stake should the fuel tank, or any amount of the one thousand pounds of unused hydrazine rocket fuel it contains, return to Earth. In order to minimize the amount of material that might be left in space, the government waited until just before the satellite was ready to fall out of orbit before conducting its operation. The goal was to blast the satellite into as many small pieces as possible, and to have those smaller pieces burn up as they entered the Earth’s atmosphere.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? At least they weren’t expecting sea birds to eat up all the small pieces! Anyway, Bo...

Much to my surprise, one of the Exploding Whale limericks I submitted to  Bob Welch ‘s  Oregon limerick contest  was  chosen as the winner  from the 286 submissions! This clearly says more about the unending appeal of the Exploding Whale story than it does about my ability to rhyme, but I am honored nonetheless. As detailed in a  previous post , four other would-be poets were sufficiently inspired by the Exploding Whale to make similar submissions — again testimony to the enduring nature of the story! So, for the record, here is my winning limerick: Florence is home to a tale surreal In which a dead whale stunk a great deal Boom! went the dynamite One chunk took quite a flight And crushed Walter’s new Oldsmobile. Of course, “Walter” is Walter Umenhofer, whose brand new Oldsmobile 88 was crushed by a huge piece of flying whale meat following the explosion. Walter is mentioned in several of the newspaper articles covering the incident (e.g.,  1 ,  2...

Well, it certainly didn’t take long for the Exploding Whale to make an appearance on  Register-Guard  columnist  Bob Welch ‘s  blog ! I mean, seriously, what do you think he expected when, in honor of Oregon’s 149th birthday (which was on Valentine’s Day, February 14), Welch  asked his readers to submit limericks honoring the state’s places and geographic features?  Well, I for one felt  obligated  to submit  something  related to the Exploding Whale. And apparently, I was not alone. In addition to my three entries, four other readers were moved to poetry by our beloved cetacean detonation. Please, feel free to read through  all 286 submissions . Or, at the end of this entry, you can read just the limericks that referenced the Exploding Whale.  From the 286 submissions, Bob will pick the top three and award them gift certificates to a local book store. In addition, the best limericks will be published in his February 21st colum...

Just a quick heads up to let you know that  Register-Guard columnist and longtime admirer of Oregon’s Exploding Whale  Bob Welch  has officially entered the Blogosphere with his new RG blog titled  Close to Home with Bob Welch . Welch has written several columns ( 1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ,  7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 ,  11 ) about or referencing the Exploding Whale, and hopefully we’ll see periodic mention of it in his blog as well. Welcome, Bob!