4 ms·

I was curious about modern best practices. Here's what I've learned. * In rare circumstances, you can bury the whale on site. * Towing the whale corpse out to

I was curious about modern best practices. Here's what I've learned. * In rare circumstances, you can bury the whale on site. * Towing the whale corpse out to sea can be a hazard for boats. * Selling marine animal remains is often illegal. If it's brought to a composting facility, it can be a legal liability for that company to sell their compost. * The best option may be to either tow it to a better spot to rot, or to dump it in a landfill. https://www.livescience.com/63634-how-to-dispose-dead-whale.html https://www.livescience.com/63634-how-to-dispose-dead-whale....

stametseater 4y ago
Import a few dozen polar bears and they'll make short work of that whale.
Arrath 4y ago
Hilariously enough there is a US Forest Service pamphlet on removing animal carcasses with explosives. https://intrans.iastate.edu/app/uploads/2018/03/Boom-Boom-Boom.pdf https://intrans.iastate.edu/app/uploads/2018/03/Boom-Boom-Bo... A whale might have been just a bit too big for this practice, though.
- bombcar 4y ago
  The problem wasn't the method, it was not realizing the blast radius.
  - Arrath 4y ago
    Yes far too many people think blasting is a spectator sport, it very much is not.
dsfyu404ed 4y ago
>If it's brought to a composting facility, it can be a legal liability for that company to sell their compost. Gotta love how one of the better options on the list is only not an option because regulatory enforcement agencies can't be trusted not to miss the forest for the trees. Sure, you don't want people shooting whales but a municipality disposing of a whale nature dropped in its lap is obviously not what the rule was written for. I think it speaks volumes about these agencies that "Hi we're here to fine you a bunch of money and maybe screw you out of your business because a local municipality dropped a rotting whale off here 3yr ago and we're assuming everything you've sold since is a marine mammal product and it's up to you to prove otherwise" is considered a foreseeable failure mode that businesses need to avoid.
- jjoonathan 4y ago
  Do you actually know that there aren't good reasons for the law or is that purely uncharitable speculation on your part? It's easy to imagine how this might have gone down: Gardener Joe uses animal carcass compost but it stinks to high heaven, poisons the water, attracts the wrong kind of scavengers, etc. People ask him to stop but he's not bothered by the problems nearly as much as they are, he's convinced it makes his grapes taste great, and he refuses to stop. Eventually the community forces the issue with a law. In this case it would not be a meaningless law and anyone who repealed it would get to learn the same lesson all over again.
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    The law is obviously good. We don't want there to be an incentive to harm marine mammals. It's the discretion of the regulators that's lacking, or at leas they've cultivated a perception that it's lacking.
    - jjoonathan 4y ago
      > We don't want there to be an incentive to harm marine mammals. Sure, but maybe animal compost stinks, poisons the water, and attracts pests, and handwaving that away would be even dumber than dynamiting the whale.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      This is why laws like that sometimes (and should) have a clause that basically says: "If responsible government agency decrees, the statutes herein may be waived according to X, Y, Z."
UncleOxidant 4y ago
We've had 3 beached whales here in Oregon in the last few months and it seems as though letting nature take it's course is how they deal with them now, which makes sense as the decaying whale provides food for all kinds of critters. They put up signs around the area warning people not to touch it or let their dogs get too close.

stametseater 4y ago

Import a few dozen polar bears and they'll make short work of that whale.

Arrath 4y ago

Hilariously enough there is a US Forest Service pamphlet on removing animal carcasses with explosives. https://intrans.iastate.edu/app/uploads/2018/03/Boom-Boom-Boom.pdf https://intrans.iastate.edu/app/uploads/2018/03/Boom-Boom-Bo... A whale might have been just a bit too big for this practice, though.

bombcar 4y ago
The problem wasn't the method, it was not realizing the blast radius.
- Arrath 4y ago
  Yes far too many people think blasting is a spectator sport, it very much is not.

dsfyu404ed 4y ago

>If it's brought to a composting facility, it can be a legal liability for that company to sell their compost. Gotta love how one of the better options on the list is only not an option because regulatory enforcement agencies can't be trusted not to miss the forest for the trees. Sure, you don't want people shooting whales but a municipality disposing of a whale nature dropped in its lap is obviously not what the rule was written for. I think it speaks volumes about these agencies that "Hi we're here to fine you a bunch of money and maybe screw you out of your business because a local municipality dropped a rotting whale off here 3yr ago and we're assuming everything you've sold since is a marine mammal product and it's up to you to prove otherwise" is considered a foreseeable failure mode that businesses need to avoid.

jjoonathan 4y ago
Do you actually know that there aren't good reasons for the law or is that purely uncharitable speculation on your part? It's easy to imagine how this might have gone down: Gardener Joe uses animal carcass compost but it stinks to high heaven, poisons the water, attracts the wrong kind of scavengers, etc. People ask him to stop but he's not bothered by the problems nearly as much as they are, he's convinced it makes his grapes taste great, and he refuses to stop. Eventually the community forces the issue with a law. In this case it would not be a meaningless law and anyone who repealed it would get to learn the same lesson all over again.
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  The law is obviously good. We don't want there to be an incentive to harm marine mammals. It's the discretion of the regulators that's lacking, or at leas they've cultivated a perception that it's lacking.
  - jjoonathan 4y ago
    > We don't want there to be an incentive to harm marine mammals. Sure, but maybe animal compost stinks, poisons the water, and attracts pests, and handwaving that away would be even dumber than dynamiting the whale.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    This is why laws like that sometimes (and should) have a clause that basically says: "If responsible government agency decrees, the statutes herein may be waived according to X, Y, Z."

UncleOxidant 4y ago

We've had 3 beached whales here in Oregon in the last few months and it seems as though letting nature take it's course is how they deal with them now, which makes sense as the decaying whale provides food for all kinds of critters. They put up signs around the area warning people not to touch it or let their dogs get too close.