Time ticking for Newfoundland town till HUGE beached whale carcass explodes

[CougarKing]

Yikes.   

National Post

Time ticks down for Newfoundland town searching for solution before whale explodes

 

(...EDITED)

It is a nightmare, the whale, a decaying mass of blubber and baleen and flesh measuring about 25 metres from tip to whale tail and weighing approximately 80 tonnes. Imagine 30 or so dead elephants appearing on your doorstep, unannounced, and you can imagine what the people in Trout River, a picturesque tourist town in Gros Morne National Park, are thinking. Which, in a word, is: How the hell are we going to get rid of this potentially explosive blue whale before the summer high season begins?

“We don’t know what to do,” says Emily Butler, the town manager. “The whale is there on our beach. It has been there since Friday. We are heading into tourist season. I’ve contacted the Coast Guard, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Environment Canada — and all these departments keep saying that the whale is on municipal property, and so it is the responsibility of the town.”

Nine blue whales got trapped in the ice and perished off western Newfoundland this winter, an unprecedented mass death of an endangered species that numbers only about 250 off of the Newfoundland coast. Three of the dead whales have drifted ashore, in Baker’s Brook, Rocky Harbour and Trout River.

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The [whale] skin is starting to lose its integrity and if someone were to walk along, say, the chin — that is full of all that gas — they could fall in the whale. The insides will be liquefied. Retrieving them would be very difficult.

“I have fallen through the side of a whale up to my chest. It’s not very nice. And if the animal is up against the shore and there are waves battering it, and it’s moving, then you can imagine what would happen if it rolled over onto a child.”

The great beast is also a dead animal full of diseases, including a strain of dermatitis that causes skin on human hands to crack and break and itch and requires heavy doses of medication to remedy.

It is a fine mess. The dead whale, in its present location, smack in town, practically on the doorstep of Trout River’s Fishermen’s Museum and with the world-famous Seaside Restaurant — an international destination for foodies that has been written up in The New York Times — nearby, is turning what was initially a local curiosity into a full-blown crisis.

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[Jarnhamar]

“I have fallen through the side of a whale up to my chest. It’s not very nice. And if the animal is up against the shore and there are waves battering it, and it’s moving, then you can imagine what would happen if it rolled over onto a child.”

The great beast is also a dead animal full of diseases, including a strain of dermatitis that causes skin on human hands to crack and break and itch and requires heavy doses of medication

Here's an idea. Don't go near the whale and don't let your children go near the whale.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS4MN7sptLw ;D

 

[OldTanker]

Or this . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIlKxaEIFDk

 

[JMesh]

Found on Facebook: http://hasthewhaleexplodedyet.com/

 

[Michael OLeary]

Turn it into a tourist event. Build protective observation shelters. Sell tickets in the Whale Explosion Pool. Set up webcams for around the world real time monitoring. Or, have the Engineers blow it up first.    ;D

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Turn it into a tourist event. Build protective observation shelters. Sell tickets in the Whale Explosion Pool. Set up webcams for around the world real time monitoring. Or, have the Engineers blow it up first.    ;D

Nah, 2 R NFLD R can use it for target practice....  ;D

 

[OldSolduer]

Is this where Rob Ford is taking his break from being a mayor?  ;D

 

[CougarKing]

Is this where Rob Ford is taking his break from being a mayor?  ;D

Well, the whale is headed for Toronto... 

National Post

Newfoundland’s dead (but still unexploded) blue whale headed to Toronto’s ROM

The very large, very dead, very bloated blue whale that washed up on Trout River, N.L.’s, picturesque beach last Friday, along with a similarly dead whale that had washed up in nearby Rocky Harbour, are at the centre of an agreement between the federal government and the Royal Ontario Museum announced Thursday.

The whales, initially left to rot and potentially explode, and cast as the responsibility of the two tiny municipalities to dispose of, have now been claimed by the government and its museum partner.

The plan, in its infant stage, is to take tissue samples from the rotting beasts and work to preserve their skeletons for study.

“Our government is pleased that we are able to work with the Royal Ontario Museum to preserve these rare whales in a meaningful way through this invaluable contribution to Canadian science,” Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, said in a statement.

The very large, very dead, very bloated blue whale that washed up on Trout River, N.L.’s, picturesque beach last Friday, along with a similarly dead whale that had washed up in nearby Rocky Harbour, are at the centre of an agreement between the federal government and the Royal Ontario Museum announced Thursday.

The whales, initially left to rot and potentially explode, and cast as the responsibility of the two tiny municipalities to dispose of, have now been claimed by the government and its museum partner.

The plan, in its infant stage, is to take tissue samples from the rotting beasts and work to preserve their skeletons for study.

(...EDITED)

 

[Colin Parkinson]

In which case start sending them the bill for renting storage space on the beach.

 

[PMedMoe]

Makes good fodder for editorial cartoons too....  :nod:

 

[CougarKing]

Another Newfoundland whale story:

National Post

Sperm whale carcass eBay auction taken offline after it runs afoul of site’s rules — and federal government

Frustrated by a lack of help from the government, a town on Newfoundland’s west coast tried to auction off a sperm whale carcass on eBay.

The gigantic dead mammal washed up in Cape St. George a week ago, Mayor Peter Fenwick told Canada.com. In Newfoundland, animal carcasses are the responsibility of the municipality they wash up in, even if they’re 12 metres long and weigh 25 or 30 tons like this one does.

Disposing of a dead whale is no easy task and whether its buried, towed out to sea or sliced up to preserve the bones, it requires equipment and funds the town just doesn’t have. Although Fenwick said he’d like to preserve the bones, “it’s just not within our financial capability.”

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