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Does anyone know what the current official solution is for a smelly whale carcass stuck on a beach? Seems like hauling it a few miles offshore would do the tri

Does anyone know what the current official solution is for a smelly whale carcass stuck on a beach? Seems like hauling it a few miles offshore would do the trick, but who knows it might wash back.

dan_quixote 6y ago
How? I image that some kind of net could be made to attach to a tug and haul out to sea, but such a thing would have to be custom made to handle a 50 ton whale on sand.
justin66 6y ago
> hauling it a few miles offshore 1. Where are you going to put the crane? It's a beach. 2. Where are you going to put the ship or tugboat? It's a beach. I don't know the solution to beached whale disposal either. I just assume that it's really, really gross.
- evan_ 6y ago
  You wouldn't need a crane. Lay out nylon straps on the beach, push or roll it onto the straps with an end loader, secure the straps around it and push it the rest of the way into the water. Once it's in the water and floating you can pull it from a boat 50 meters away if you need to.
  - crygin 6y ago
    Not all whale carcasses float -- some sink like a stone (and some sink, only to later rise again).
  - pinot 6y ago
    There's a bit of a trick to pushing a 20t rotting chunk of soft flesh into straps wide enough to then not slice through the beast when under tow.
- pugworthy 6y ago
  Marine salvage operations can do it. In fact about 21 years ago, a 650 foot ship (the New Carissa) grounded on the beach about 50 miles south of the whale location. It broke apart, but the salvors were able to float and tow a 440 foot section back out to sea to sink it. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Carissa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Carissa
  - justin66 6y ago
    All things are possible with sufficiently large heavy machinery, but that's an interesting comparison because what they had to work with when salvaging that ship was not actively decomposing. There actually are trash dumpsters large enough to hold this whale. I'm not sure it'd be necessary to tow it out to sea, but maybe that's not as hard as it seems to someone like me who doesn't know the process.
seszett 6y ago
Until at least about 20 years ago when I lived there, on the coast of France, the whales were simply buried under sand until they were decomposed, and then dug up.
itronitron 6y ago
I'm thinking a trebuchet could be built onsite, straddling the carcass and facing the ocean. Then schoolchildren could use buckets to fill the counterweight box with wet sand. Seems like a nice STEM activity.
claudiulodro 6y ago
TFA says the current recommendation is to bury the whale.
dclowd9901 6y ago
Here's an idea: loop several thin wires around the carcass, connect them to a tractor and pull... Should break it down quite easily into several moveable chunks.
- londons_explore 6y ago
  Got a feeling even a tensile steel wire won't be strong enough to cut through a whale bone before it either snaps or starts dragging the whale.
wolfhumble 6y ago
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale: "Currently, Oregon State Parks Department policy is to bury whale carcasses where they land. If the sand is not deep enough, they are relocated to another beach."
sien 6y ago
Even just getting excavators on to a beach can be risky. Near where I used to live they were using an excavator to move some sand. The tide caught one. It started to sink. They sent in another. You can guess what happened next. Cool. There is still a small article about this: https://starcommunity.com.au/star/04-05-2008/time-and-tide-wait-for-no-excavator/ https://starcommunity.com.au/star/04-05-2008/time-and-tide-w...

Does anyone know what the current official solution is for a smelly whale carcass stuck on a beach? Seems like hauling it a few miles offshore would do the trick, but who knows it might wash back.

dan_quixote 6y ago

How? I image that some kind of net could be made to attach to a tug and haul out to sea, but such a thing would have to be custom made to handle a 50 ton whale on sand.

justin66 6y ago

> hauling it a few miles offshore 1. Where are you going to put the crane? It's a beach. 2. Where are you going to put the ship or tugboat? It's a beach. I don't know the solution to beached whale disposal either. I just assume that it's really, really gross.

evan_ 6y ago
You wouldn't need a crane. Lay out nylon straps on the beach, push or roll it onto the straps with an end loader, secure the straps around it and push it the rest of the way into the water. Once it's in the water and floating you can pull it from a boat 50 meters away if you need to.
- crygin 6y ago
  Not all whale carcasses float -- some sink like a stone (and some sink, only to later rise again).
- pinot 6y ago
  There's a bit of a trick to pushing a 20t rotting chunk of soft flesh into straps wide enough to then not slice through the beast when under tow.
pugworthy 6y ago
Marine salvage operations can do it. In fact about 21 years ago, a 650 foot ship (the New Carissa) grounded on the beach about 50 miles south of the whale location. It broke apart, but the salvors were able to float and tow a 440 foot section back out to sea to sink it. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Carissa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Carissa
- justin66 6y ago
  All things are possible with sufficiently large heavy machinery, but that's an interesting comparison because what they had to work with when salvaging that ship was not actively decomposing. There actually are trash dumpsters large enough to hold this whale. I'm not sure it'd be necessary to tow it out to sea, but maybe that's not as hard as it seems to someone like me who doesn't know the process.

seszett 6y ago

Until at least about 20 years ago when I lived there, on the coast of France, the whales were simply buried under sand until they were decomposed, and then dug up.

itronitron 6y ago

I'm thinking a trebuchet could be built onsite, straddling the carcass and facing the ocean. Then schoolchildren could use buckets to fill the counterweight box with wet sand. Seems like a nice STEM activity.

claudiulodro 6y ago

TFA says the current recommendation is to bury the whale.

dclowd9901 6y ago

Here's an idea: loop several thin wires around the carcass, connect them to a tractor and pull... Should break it down quite easily into several moveable chunks.

londons_explore 6y ago
Got a feeling even a tensile steel wire won't be strong enough to cut through a whale bone before it either snaps or starts dragging the whale.

wolfhumble 6y ago

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale: "Currently, Oregon State Parks Department policy is to bury whale carcasses where they land. If the sand is not deep enough, they are relocated to another beach."

sien 6y ago

Even just getting excavators on to a beach can be risky. Near where I used to live they were using an excavator to move some sand. The tide caught one. It started to sink. They sent in another. You can guess what happened next. Cool. There is still a small article about this: https://starcommunity.com.au/star/04-05-2008/time-and-tide-wait-for-no-excavator/ https://starcommunity.com.au/star/04-05-2008/time-and-tide-w...