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, 2009

.
posted by jtron at 2:52 PM on March 9, 2009

Hagfish gotta eat too.
posted by jquinby at 2:53 PM on March 9, 2009 [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, 2009 [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, 2009 [4 favorites]

No, no, no! Dynamite!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:07 PM on March 9, 2009 [2 favorites]

Pretty thin post...
posted by agregoli at 3:19 PM on March 9, 2009

Pretty thin post...

Well it's a pretty thin whale.
posted by Danf at 3:22 PM on March 9, 2009

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, 2009 [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, 2009 [1 favorite]

Pretty fin post.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:58 PM on March 9, 2009 [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, 2009 [1 favorite]

Commotion in the ocean.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:24 PM on March 9, 2009

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, 2009

Whale Meet Again

Whale meat again!
posted by grobstein at 5:26 PM on March 9, 2009

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, 2009 [4 favorites]

.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:44 PM on March 9, 2009

"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, 2009

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, 2009

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, 2009

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, 2009 [1 favorite]