In a sad and gruesome twist, the initial explosive charge set off directly above the brain of a stranded juvenile humpback whale in Western Australia failed to kill the animal. After the whale continued thrashing for several minutes, a wildlife officer began firing several shots into its head, as can be seen in the photo above. After a total of 15 minutes, a second charge was detonated, finally killing the suffering creature. This was really the worst possible outcome of the decision to euthanize this stranded whale. Really, once you’ve made that decision, can there be such a thing as using  too many explosives ? I mean, if your plan is to “put it out of its misery,” then why not just plan to blow it to kingdom come? If you think X pounds of explosives is enough, why not just use 5X for good measure?  And if the explosives didn’t kill it, why would they then think that shooting it full of bullets for 15 minutes was going to finish the job?  The thought processes that lead...

It’s been almost exactly three years since the  last time  explosives were used to end the life of a suffering whale. This merciful act has happened again today, September 30, 2008, in West Australia. Explosives have been used to put down a dying 15 tonne humpback whale stranded in shallow waters at Jurien Bay. The whale thrashed its tail for at least five minutes after the blast, which was authorised by the Department of Environment…. Department of Environment spokesman Nigel Higgs confirmed the whale’s death just after 5pm. “We have just euthanised the whale and we will propose to bury it on site,” Mr. Higgs said. The whale was euthanised by a technique which caused an implosion into its brain. “It went as well as it can be expected, it is a big animal,” Mr Higgs said. A 1km exclusion zone was enforced around the whale while the procedure took place. Not surprisingly, the act was condemned by a former whale rescuer and animal activist: The veteran animal campaigner said the ...

Wildlife officials in Australia are planning to euthanize a dying, stranded whale with an explosive charge directed into the creature’s brain. The 16-ton juvenile humpback whale has been stranded for five days in  Jurien Bay  in Western Australia and is believed to be either sick or injured.  Officials had originally planned to keep the whale as comfortable as possible and let it die on its own. “The whale is so weak that it can’t be rescued and moving such a large animal is not possible without causing it significant damage and distress, and it is too big to euthanase,” [senior wildlife officer] Mr. Coughran said. But five days later, the whale was still alive. “It’s taking a while to die,” Mr. Coughran said. “What we’ve been doing is monitoring the process and now it’s getting to a stage where its condition is such that we can seriously consider efficient and instantaneous ways to euthanise it.” Those in charge are “now looking to end the 10m animal’s suffering by deton...

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...

CNN ‘s  News To Me  program, which covered the Exploding Whale  back in February , is now having a contest to determine which segments will appear in their self-proclaimed “blockbuster special” on May 17.  Obviously, I’d like to encourage you to  vote for the Exploding Whale ! So go do it. Now. What are you waiting for? I’ll still be here when you come back. Go on now. Vote for the Whale!

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!

The  CNN  program  News to Me  recently aired  a segment on Oregon’s Exploding Whale . In addition to the original  KATU video , the piece features clips from interviews with Paul Linnman and Doug Brazil, the reporter and cameraman who in 1970 documented the momentous event. While the video contains a brief, unattributed screen shot of  our Dave Barry page , TheExplodingWhale.com is, unfortunately, not directly featured. (And why not?) But the  animation by Abdul Hameed Gamiet  and the  comic strip by Greg Williams  — both covered on TheExplodingWhale.com in recent months — were featured prominently in the story.

One of the Exploding Whale’s biggest proponents strikes again!  Bob Welch , a columnist for the  Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), profiles Walter Umenhofer, the gentleman whose brand new Oldsmobile 88 was crushed by a 300-pound piece of dead whale sent skyward when the Oregon Highway Division detonated 20 cases of dynamite underneath a rotting whale carcass (see  video ). Mr. Umenhofer, now 75, has long been one of the most intriguing, if reluctant, characters in the saga of the Exploding Whale. He has largely avoided interviews and little is known about his opinion of the incident. “It’s funny,” [Umenhofer] says. “That was one big piece of blubber. It hit so hard that it bent my roof down and pushed the back of the seats to the floor.” Unfortunately, Bob’s interview, which is part of his “Where Are They Now?” series, is pretty brief. Walter does share one humorous tidbit: when he purchased his brand new Olds, the car dealer was using the motto, “Come to us for a whale of a d...

  Oregon’s Exploding Whale continues to inspire creative types. Last year, the Exploding Whale was the subject of a   successful one-man show   and a   WikiWorld comic strip . And now   Abdul Hameed Gamiet   has released an animated retelling of the well-known incident. Gamiet used the audio track from the   the original video   and then created his own “reinterpreted” visuals. While the new visuals are occasionally humorous (if not reminiscent of  The Simpsons !), Gamiet’s decision to use the original newsreel’s audio track was a wise one. You just can’t beat Linnman’s deadpan delivery. The combination is an entertaining remake of an unrivaled classic.

On the 37th anniversary of Oregon’s Exploding Whale, radio host and former exploding whale reporter Paul Linnman interviewed Chicago stand-up comic Chris Gummert, whose one-man show on the exploding whale is currently playing at the Apollo Theater in Chicago (as  previously   reported ).  From the interview:  It is equal parts, I think, research project and stand-up. It incorporates the original video as well as videos about dynamite and the history of dynamite. And so it’s a pretty in-depth view of those things. TheExplodingWhale.com has added a transcript of Linnman’s interview to its evidence collection. It can be accessed through the following link: Linnman interviews comic behind exploding whale one-man show (11/12/07)

WikiWorld cartoonist  Greg Williams   drew a comic about Oregon’s exploding whale, presumably in celebration of the anniversary. I particularly appreciated the facial expression on reporter Paul Linnman’s face in the first pane of the comic. To see Paul’s expression and the rest of strip, click through on the thumbnail or the link below. WikiWorld comic: “Exploding whale”

On this, the 37th anniversary of Oregon’s Exploding Whale, let us engage in a little thought experiment. For a moment, just pause and reflect upon all those things in your life that you take way too seriously… that cause you to lose sleep or to sleep too much… that create stress and anxiety in your life. Consider those times where you’ve been so focused on what is wrong or what you find offensive or what you take too personally. Examine those attitudes that lead to denial, delusion, and defiance.  And now ask yourself:  Wherein lies the good? Wherein lies the happiness? Wherein lies the humor? For me, the Exploding Whale embodies this view of life and the world around us. Sure, this sounds silly, but it’s really a classic example of the thought experiment above. I’ve always been intrigued by the dichotomy induced by the events of November 12, 1970. Some people immediately see the hilarity, folly, and absurdity of what happened, while others see it only as tragic and depressing...

As  previously reported …. Countdown: The Story of the Exploding Whale  continues its phenomenally funny run at the Apollo Theater on Wednesday nights at 8pm through the end of November. The hilarious new multi-media, one-man show from writer/comedian Chris Gummert unravels the true story of a beached whale that was disposed of using a half-ton of dynamite in 1970. The resulting explosion sent blubber flying and totaled a car a quarter of a mile away. The news footage of the disposal has since gone on to become the fifth most watched video on the Internet, according to the BBC. In this painstakingly researched show Gummert utilizes an exciting range of storytelling techniques and technology to uncover a truly bizarre tale; a tale that touches on unwanted presents, stolen teeth, a brief history of dynamite and the importance of scheduling vacation days in advance. Countdown also covers modern disposal techniques utilized around the globe and discusses additional whale disposals...

Southern California has recently been confronted with figuring out how best to dispose of a huge, 60-ton blue whale carcass. The rotting hulk was towed into harbor for examination by scientists on September 22, and after being dissected and having several internal organs removed, the whale was towed out to sea. A few days later, it washed up on a Malibu beach where lifeguards had a go out at the stinking leviathan. They also tried towing it out to sea in hopes that it would sink, but as of October 4, it had returned to a Malibu sandbar. A  recent article  in the  LA Times  did a nice job of surveying the undesirable disposal options. Naturally, Oregon’s Exploding Whale was cited early on in the article: What to do with a dead whale is no small problem…. Blow it up and you just might end up showering blubber on hapless spectators, as did the state of Oregon in a 1970 incident still kept pungently alive on the Internet and in columns by humorist Dave Barry. (“pungently...

Chris Gummert The Oregon exploding whale has had quite a life: first, the original news reel followed by endless anniversary pieces… then Dave Barry’s hilarious article… and recently it became the 5th most popular video on the web. Can Broadway be far behind? Not if Chris Gummert has anything to say about it. Gummert has written a one man show about the event called  Countdown: The Story of the Exploding Whale  that is making it’s Chicago debut on October 10th, 2007. “This is such a great theater city,” Gummert said. “I’m thrilled to be putting the show up in Chicago,”  Gummert debuted his multi-media performance earlier this year at the  Iowa Fringe Festival  to  rave reviews … even from some of his harshest critics. “I think my mom might have broken down and smiled during this show,” Gummert enthused. “Ebert and Roeper have got NOTHING on that rating!”  Gummert plans on touring the show extensively throughout the next year and a half. Information abo...

“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...