“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it an explosion, but it can be like an enormous fart. It would be quite unpleasant if the stomach blows up. It’s not very nice to have rotten whale parts showering over you.” These comments were made by Tore Haug of the  Norwegian Marine Research Institute  in Bergen as he described a very foul-smelling whale carcass that has found its way into a Norwegian fjord.  Mr. Haug certainly sounds as though he’s rather well-schooled in our favorite topic. Unfortunately, much of Norway is “familiar” with whales in a way that defies the international community. Perhaps this is how the whales strike back against Norway’s ongoing  commercial whaling  industry. As for the photo, I’m honestly not even sure what it’s showing. Apparently, the entire exterior of the whale carcass has turned completely white. And it really stinks. Crews were trying to prevent it from making landfall by towing it our of the fjord. Meanwhile, several jurisdictions and...

In this AP photo, the giant, swollen tongue of a dead humpback whale appears close to exploding. Alas, it did not. The ballooning organ did, however, contribute to the whale’s death. While some officials initially said the swollen tongue indicated an infection, experts now believe that a large volume of air may have been forced into the 40-foot leviathan’s tongue after it was struck by a ship. The whale apparently survived the supposed impact, though, as it was seen by a tour boat and two ferries struggling to swim. Forced onto its side at the surface by its own tongue-pontoon, the whale was observed having difficulty getting its blow hole above water in order to breathe. The humpback carcass washed up on the west side of Admiralty Island in Southeast Alaska, officials said. Links to the original article and a larger photo follow: Death of Swollen-Tongued Whale Probed   – washingtonpost.com (Larger photo)   – washingtonpost.com

Way up in the northwestern corner of Oregon is the small town of  Clatskanie . Despite being over 200 miles away from where Oregon’s infamous whale made its debut, it lays claim to its own unique connections to the Exploding Whale.  In an editorial in  The Clatskanie Chief , publisher and editor Deborah Steele Hazen writes, “There are many far-flung paths that begin, end or cross in Clatskanie.” One of those paths involves Jack Sweeney, who, in a six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon kind of way, is intrinsically linked to the exploding whale through his relationships with two key players in that drama. It turns out that Sweeney was classmates with George Thornton — the highway engineer in charge of the detonation — in Clatskanie High School’s class of 1947. And then at some point, Sweeney relocated to Eugene and became neighbors with none other than Walter Umenhofer, the poor guy whose 1969 Oldsmobile was crushed by a large piece of flying whale blubber following the explosion. Rec...

Register-Guard  columnist and perennial exploding whale enthusiast  Bob Welch  has once again referenced Oregon’s exploding whale in one of his columns.  In  “Dozer, not dynamite, eases whale’s final passage”  — part of his “Where are they now?” series — Welch discusses the fate of the  40-foot gray whale that recently washed up on Oregon’s coast  just a few miles north of where  Oregon’s original exploding whale  met its infamous end. He says: First, rest easy: The whale was not blown up with dynamite, one of those seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time methods used in 1970 in Florence — that wound up busting car windshields and triggering lawsuits. He goes on to explain how the recent whale was pushed 100 yards to a sandy location, buried, exposed by the next high tide, and then finally reburied above the high-tide line. The column has been added to our newspaper article section here: “Dozer, not dynamite…” (7/2/07)   – TheExplodingW...

On Sunday, May 27, 2007, the carcass of a 40-foot California Gray Whale washed up on a beach near Seal Rock, Oregon, a mere 40 or so miles north of where Oregon’s  original exploding whale incident occurred. Scientists have been unable to determine a cause of death. The whale will be buried in a nearby sandy area. Gray Whale’s death probed by scientists  (or  watch video ) – KOMO 40-foot whale washes up on Oregon coast  (or  watch slideshow )  – KGW Giant Carcass Washes Ashore  – KOIN Dead 40-foot whale washes ashore near Newport   – The Oregonian Dead whale attracts curious onlookers  (includes link to video)  – KATU Police: Stop taking parts of dead whale   – KATU Officials on Oregon Coast tell tourists: Hands off the dead whale   – KTVZ Oregon State Police Looking for Those Taking Dead Whale Parts  – Salem-News.com Authorities search for scavengers who took parts from a dead whale   – The Oregonian Touching Dead Or...

A United States Coast Guard crew based on the Big Island of Hawaii attempted to sink a bloated whale carcass found floating outside Hilo Harbor by firing more than 30 rounds into it from an M-16 rifle. It didn’t work. The lieutenant in charge explained that this method “does not appear to have worked very well right now, but in time it may.” I think we all know a  another  way to deal with that carcass! Unfortunately, using explosives may have left the half-dozen tiger sharks, each measuring 12 to 17 feet long, as unnecessary collateral.  Whale carcass drifts off Big Island   – Honolulu Advertiser Whale Carcass Attracts Sharks, Endangers Boaters   – KITV

As the  Register-Guard ‘s resident exploding whale-lover,  Bob Welch  has written about Oregon’s exploding whale several times. See what happened when he recently asked readers to submit their  top 4 made-in-Oregon movies .

Has anyone seen the new movie,   Reno 911!: Miami ? Apparently, the “Reno 911” crew blows up the carcass of a dead whale they find on Miami’s South Beach. There’s a reference to it in the following Chicago  Herald News interview with two of the actors. Dangle and Junior recounted the rest of their life-altering experiences from the Miami adventure — ranging from staying in seedy motels to coping with south Florida’s unrelenting humidity to hauling a dead whale’s carcass across South Beach. Q.   About that whale? Dangle:  Now, just so you know. That whale was totally, completely and ABSOLUTELY dead when we got there. Junior:  That’s right! There is no offense in blowing up something that was already dead. That dang thing was like 10 tons of rotting blubber. I thought blowing it up was a great idea! Dangle:  We expedited this beached whale from the place that it was at … to a different state. By a different state, I mean from a solid mass to a light mist of b...

Earlier this year,  we pointed out an article  that suggested that the Exploding Whale may have been the first example of a viral video. Now the  BBC is reporting  that our beloved Exploding Whale video — which you can watch  right here  — is the fifth most watched viral video on the web! On the whale, they have this to say: A TV news clip from 1970 of an exploding whale – in which giant pieces of whale blubber rained down on people a quarter of a mile away – has been viewed 350 million times and earned its own website. The article says that marketing company  The Viral Factory  has “collated page impression figures from websites such as YouTube” in order to determine how many times several very popular web videos have been viewed. Here’s their ranking of the videos (and estimated number of views): TOP TEN VIRAL VIDEOS Star Wars Kid (900m) Numa Numa (700m) One Night In Paris (400m) Kylie Minogue for Agent Provocateur (360m) The Exploding Whale (35...

I recently had the opportunity to visit the  Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA. In the main hall is a life-size model of a blue whale, which is believed to be the largest animal to have ever lived on Earth.  According to  Wikipedia , the model is 88 feet long and represents the average size of female blue whales. However, the largest blue whales approach 100 feet long and weigh close to 200 tons!

Just a quick blurb to make sure that the 36th anniversary of Oregon’s Exploding Whale does not go unnoticed. It was on November 12, 1970, that the Oregon Highway Division detonated a half-ton of dynamite around the rotting carcass of a sperm whale… and made history.  The date also marks the first anniversary of our newly designed website, which  we launched a year ago in conjunction with a newspaper column featuring our website . Keep telling your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and anyone else you can think of about the Exploding Whale. As long as they keep visiting, we’ll keep our site up and running.  PS: If you haven’t watched the exploding whale video in a while, you should do so today:  click to play the video .

Oregon’s Exploding Whale was once again mentioned in a  news story about the arrival of a 50-foot whale carcass to the Port of Everett in Washington State .  The advanced state of decay initially made it difficult to identify the type of whale, though experts now believe it was a fin whale. This is the second specimen of this endangered and rarely-seen whale to come ashore in Washington in less than six months. (The carcass of another fin whale washed up on a Washington beach  last May .) As with the last one, researchers believe the whale had been struck by a ship. However, it was also entangled in such a way that it had likely been unable to feed for weeks or possibly months.  The whale was found when dock workers complained of a foul smell coming from under the dock.  Oregon’s Exploding Whale was also referenced:  Whale remains often are treated like gangland snitches – left to decompose on remote beaches, hastily buried, or brought to deep water, weight...

The bloated carcass of a gigantic 54-foot humpback whale washed ashore on a beach in the southwest corner of Washington State. Staff from a nearby aquarium believe the whale has been dead for some time. On Friday, whale experts are expected to conduct a necropsy in order to determine how the whale died. Following this, Washington State Parks officials plan to bury the 15-ton leviathan on the beach. No exploding whale here, I’m afraid! Dead whale washes up on Wash. Coast   – KGW 54-Foot Whale Carcass Washes Ashore   – KOIN Rare giant lands ashore, drawing gawkers and scientific interest   – The Oregonian Sea Creatures Shock Beach Goers in Oregon and Washington   – Salem-News.com A whale’s death draws the curious   – Seattle Times Scientists race the tide for whale   – The Oregonian Humpback whale carcass to be buried on beach   – KATU A whale of an event   – Chinook Observer

The  University of Oregon   Computer & Information Science Department  has published a short article about my involvement with the Exploding Whale in their  alumni  newsletter. The whole article can be found in the  Related Stories  section of our site and via this link: Strange Hobby, New Baby Tie ’90s Alumni to Oregon   – UO CIS Alumni Newsletter, Summer 2006

Another load of ambergris was found recently by Melissa Cathcart, a young British girl who was vacationing on a beach in Wales in the United Kingdom. The lump was reportedly valued at between $6,000-$7,000. It is currently unclear whether Cathcart will be able to profit from her rare find. You may remember our   previous report   on an Australian couple who found a much larger hunk of ambergris worth in excess of $300,000. In that case, the couple was unable to sell it commercially since Australian law prohibits trading in whale products of any kind. Girl in Wales finds lucky whale vomit   – UPI A Whale-y sick fortune   – icWales.co.uk

Animation by  KATU Another chapter in Oregon’s illustrious history of blowing stuff up was written at 7am on May 21, 2006 — a Sunday morning. 2,800 pounds of explosives were packed into about 3,000 separate holes drilled into the lower half of the cooling tower at the  Trojan Nuclear Plant . (Yes, the plant was defunct prior to detonation!) According to  Controlled Demolition Inc. , which handled the implosion, the Trojan tower is the largest in the nation to be destroyed. The plant closed in 1993 for financial and safety reasons after just 17 years of service. It was Oregon’s first and only nuclear power plant. The State of Oregon has a proud history of blowing stuff up. Of course, this website focuses on the beloved  Exploding Whale  of 1970. And in 1999, when the 639-foot  New Carissa  — loaded with 140,000 gallons of bunker oil — ran aground on the Oregon coast, part of the “solution” was to blow it up, too! (No,  we are not making this up !) ...

It’s been a tough week for the endangered fin whale. Two dead whales, one on each coast of the United States, have been attracting significant attention. We start in Delaware and then move west to Washington state.  Delaware struggles with 35 tons of dead whale Residents of the Delaware coast are struggling with how to dispose of a giant whale carcass that came ashore on May 13. As the second largest creature on the planet (next to the blue whale), it should come as no surprise that crews using ropes to move the 35-ton, 55-foot fin whale encountered problems — even  after  the rotting hulk was dissected into smaller pieces, which included decapitating the dead beast. According to Suzanne Thurman, executive director of the non-profit  Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute , “The ropes (used to drag the whale) keep breaking. We’re waiting for a chain and we have a rope on loan from a barge towing company.” Once the chains and other equipment arrive, w...

Paul Linnman, the intrepid TV news reporter behind the  exploding whale video , retired from TV in 2004 and now works at Oregon  radio station KEX . In a recent article,  The Oregonian  newspaper asked several well-known Oregonians, including Linnman, about their coffee habits. Linnman started his comments by saying: I have only two remaining addictions: Coffee and ice cream, and I’m hooked on both for life. About the coffee provided by the radio station, Paul says: KEX provides very acceptable coffee, but I prefer to brew (with a Krups cone drip) my own each morning (around 3:30 a.m.) and pack my thermos to the radio station. It has to be Peet’s and it has to be French blend. Like many in the Northwest, Linnman clearly loves his coffee. For his afternoon “pick-me-up,” Paul downs a 12-ounce Americano with “two shots of espresso, the rest water… but only half-filled with water.” (As a non-coffee drinker, I’m not even sure what that means!)  Finally, when Linnman ...

TheExplodingWhale.com was mentioned in a  recent article  on the  Salt Lake Tribune  newspaper’s website. The article, titled  Viral Videos: Spread of Internet video clips is catching , points to the infamous 1970  exploding whale video (which, of course, is the focus of this site) as an early example of a so-called “viral video.” The author explains: More than five years ago, people were sharing an uproarious video, a 1970 TV news report from Portland of a beached whale carcass that authorities blew up into fleshy chunks (one falling piece actually struck a parked car). That sequence is now so famous it has its own fan Web site,  http://www.theexplodingwhale.com . Five years? It’s been at least  ten  years because my involvement with the Exploding Whale dates all the way back to the early 1990s, and I know I wasn’t the first one to see it! (For a history of this website, please see our  About this site  page.) No matter, is it poss...

The staff at the   Somerset County Gazette   newspaper in, of all places,   Somerset County, England , decided to play an April Fool’s Day joke on their readers. They ran a fake article titled   Beached whale draws crowds to Taunton park   in which they claimed a whale, named “Gotcha” by locals, “tugged itself out of the water and shuffled up the bank, across the foopath and onto the main grassed area” of a city park. Despite claims that whales can live out of water for up to a week and are actually quite friendly, “Gotcha” was purported to have eaten one woman’s Yorkshire Terrier. In response, a local farmer was hired to bring in a “fresh supply of newborn lambs” to satisfy the whale’s appetite. The next day, the newspaper ran   a story letting its readers off the hook   and asking to hear from anyone who fell for the joke and tried to go see the whale.   We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, here are links to the two articles: Beached whale dr...

On June 2, 2006, the U.S. Pentagon plans to detonate 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, which would make it the largest open-air, non-nuclear blast ever seen at the Nevada Test Site. The goal of the test is to aid in designing weapons that can reach weapons of mass destructions buried deep under solid rock.  Nevada weapons test plan blasted   – CNN.com Nevada Site Office   – U.S. Dept. of Energy Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation Nevada Test Site   – Wikipedia I just hope the Pentagon is prepared to fend off those crazy Oregon highway engineers from that mother lode!  For a fascinating collection of films about U.S.  nuclear  testing, we recommend the  Atomic Bomb Collection , which actually consists of three separate movies:  Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie ,  Nukes in Space – Rainbow Bombs , and  Atomic Journeys – Welcome to Ground Zero .

Did you know that  TheExplodingWhale.com  is home to (as far as we know) the world’s only organized discussion of the various ways in which whales explode? We call it our  Taxonomy of Cetacean Detonation . Now, in case you’re not really sure what that means, here’s a translation: Taxonomy  –  Division into ordered groups or categories. of Cetacean  –  Of, relating to, or belonging to the order Cetacea, which includes creatures such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises that are characterized by a nearly hairless body, anterior limbs modified into broad flippers, vestigial posterior limbs, and a flat notched tail. Detonation  –  The act of exploding. Now you’ve no reason to be afraid. Go take a  look  — you’ll probably learn something!

Scottish officials had planned to use dynamite to blow up the 47 ft. carcass of a dead sperm whale but later decided that the 30-ton leviathan would be hauled away and dumped in a local “rubbish tip” (disposal site). Prior to the whale’s death, it had become entangled in the anchor rope of a 19 ft. yacht occupied by Donald Morrison, 61. For nearly two hours, Morrison fought to untangle the rope from the whale, all while his small craft was being towed toward shore and repeatedly thrashed by the apparently suicidal whale. An exact cause of death for the whale had not yet been determined. Donald’s 50ft Whale of a Scare  –  The Press and Journal Rotting whale’s carcase may have to be blown up  –  The Scotsman Thar She Doesn’t Blow Up  –  The Daily Record THAR SHE DOESN’T BLOW UP Mar 7 2006 A COUNCIL decided not to blow up the rotting carcass of a 47ft whale that nearly sunk a yacht. Instead, Western Isles Council hired a low-loader lorry to transport the creat...

First they thought it was an old tree stump. Then they thought it was a cyst from a large marine animal. Eventually, they realized that they’d stumbled upon a 32-pound chunk of   ambergris   that could be worth in excess of $300,000! And they found it on a beach in western South Australia. Ambergris is a rare substance produced in the intestines of sperm whales. Scientists believe it is produced in order to aid in passing hard, bony materials that a whale may have consumed, such as squid beaks. However, chunks of it are occasionally belched out and set afloat in the world’s oceans. The material has a sweet, earthy odor that was prized by perfume makers before synthetic replacements were created.  Here are a couple articles covering this recent find: West Coast whale ‘vomit’ could be worth millions “Moby sick” find lands fragrant fortune  (see below) “Moby sick” find lands fragrant fortune Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:52 AM ET MELBOURNE (Reuters) – An Australian couple could re...

No explosions or man-made screw-ups to laugh at this time. No, unfortunately, this is just the sad story of a 5-ton northern bottle-nosed whale that somehow found itself swimming up the Thames River in England. From the river’s banks, people watched in awe as the 18-foot creature swam through towns and cities. As it became evident that the whale was disoriented and was unlikely to find its own way back to the sea, a rescue mission was put into action. Cradled by a giant sling with pontoons on each side, the whale was hoisted onto a barge and began its return trip to the Thames Estuary and the salty sea beyond. It began convulsing and died just a few miles from where it was to be freed. The BBC has a series of articles that cover the entire incident: Whale spotted in central London Thames whale amazes and intrigues Fears for health of Thames whale Lost whale dies after rescue bid Dead whale is examined by experts