Whale Meet Again

March 9, 2009 2:47 PM

A Beached Fin Whale Closes a Popular Beach. . . .It had been foundering in the surf, and just beyond the surf, for several days. They may bury it or they may tow it out to sea to become a whale fall.

It's a fin whale, which is not very prevalent along the coast. Here's betting they do not try explosives! Been there, done that, in Oregon.

posted by Danf (21 comments total)

A fortunate flickerite did get some shots before they closed the beach.
posted by Danf at 2:48 PM on March 9

.
posted by jtron at 2:52 PM on March 9

Hagfish gotta eat too.
posted by jquinby at 2:53 PM on March 9 [1 favorite]

Where was the flock of little yellow birds with string when this whale needed them?
posted by GuyZero at 3:01 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]

I read that as "whale fail" at first. Which, you know, is ... internetty.
posted by wemayfreeze at 3:05 PM on March 9 [4 favorites]

No, no, no! Dynamite!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:07 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]

Pretty thin post...
posted by agregoli at 3:19 PM on March 9

Pretty thin post...

Well it's a pretty thin whale.
posted by Danf at 3:22 PM on March 9

I thought it was a fin whale. And the whale fall article was pretty damn cool.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:28 PM on March 9 [1 favorite]

I learned about two new things from this post: Whale falls and squat lobsters.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 3:46 PM on March 9 [1 favorite]

Pretty fin post.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:58 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]

What an excellent post!! The Flickr photoset is really great, and the "whale fall" link is really interesting, too, if somewhat terrifying when you think what a devastating impact whaling has had not just on whale stocks, but entire ecosystem of the ocean floor.

What I find most interesting about Fin whales is that they sometimes interbreed with Blue whales to create hybrids...
posted by KokuRyu at 3:59 PM on March 9 [1 favorite]

Commotion in the ocean.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:24 PM on March 9

What I find most interesting about Fin whales is that they sometimes interbreed with Blue whales to create hybrids...

They were talking about that last night on National Geographic: Kingdom of the Blue Whale

Still Blue: Off the shores of Costa Rica, scientists study a stronghold of whales that once hovered near extinction.
posted by homunculus at 4:27 PM on March 9

Whale Meet Again

Whale meat again!
posted by grobstein at 5:26 PM on March 9

In Chinatown, you always see cans of Shark Fin Soup on market shelves. Although I know it can't be true. I always imagine staring at a steaming bowl, watching a dorsal fin piercing the surface of the broth, swimming in ominous circles as that dumdumdum dumdumdm music playes and everytime i put my spoon in for a mouthful of goodness it comes up with a chucnk chomped out.
posted by jonmc at 5:41 PM on March 9 [4 favorites]

.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:44 PM on March 9

"Whale fall" is one of those really cool terms you come across from time to time, though, like "wormcast".
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:51 PM on March 9

But what about the land scavengers that would've had access to it on the beach?!
posted by Matt Oneiros at 9:39 PM on March 9

Oregon Department of Dead Whales? Hi, I'm Bobby Wossname from the Knob Creek Gun Range in Kentucky. I've had an idea...
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:55 PM on March 9

The 1970 incident has its own website. Apparently around 1990 Dave Barry wrote about it but neglected to mention that it had happened 20 years prior, so it had a whole new round of people going: "What?!!", and a few news outlets reported it like it was a new story. I just put this on my blog this morning too, and I've watched the YouTube video (posted above by Chocolate Pickle) a few times ... it just doesn't get old. The reporter is so deadpan. And the kid at 1:03 ... is he kicking the whale?
posted by lisa g at 10:30 PM on March 9 [1 favorite]