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Project Noah Nature School
Eschrichtius robustus
medium sized whale washed up dead on the beach
Pacific coast
In the old days, this would be considered by the Natives as an easy feast and source of oil, and there'd be enough for everyone to take a hunk home, at least before the sun worked on it too long... I was glad to be approaching this one from upwind. I believe this one was buried on the beach later.
I met a teacher in Alaska who had permission to gather "road kill" of any kind to process and have his students rebuild the skeletons. I know they once tackled a seal - wonder if they ever tackeld anything as big as a whale
There is a staff member at Allied whale who has "reticulated" several whales for various museums .... one was a humpback juvenile .... very beautiful. I'll try to dig out the Mass. whale story
Reticulate the bones for educational purposes! it would be a large job but I am sure someone would be able to do it. I hate to hear about whales being blown up. Geez
We have a high school English class that learns about the folly of blowing up a dead whale; would love to know the town & when they blew one up in Mass. to compare to the Oregon fiascoes. I once found what must have been a whale (or other very large sea mammal) buried on our beach, being quickly consumed by flesh-eating maggots. Will have to post a video capture to identify the maggots. They were very efficient, and were themselves no doubt fish food within a tide or two.
I agree this is a most likely a grey whale because it has baleen but no rorquals (throat pleats) ... yes they did blow up a whale in a town in Massachusetts and it was indeed a bad idea, sometimes they haul them out to sea if the tide allows.
Very sad to see.
Oops, funny how you get into the "1900" typing habit... Clearly it was 2007. It is most likely a gray whale--they're pretty common on our coast. The joke is that they have actually dynamited a beached whale twice, once about 1907 or so and again in the 1960's. It takes about that long for people to forget that it's a REAL BAD IDEA. Just sprays rotten whale all over town, and the stink is significant. Usually they bury them in the sand.
don't they usually dynamite beached whales? I'm not sure though, never saw one before
It looks like a Gray whale.
And people look very fashionable to be spotted on 1907 haha ;)
Spotted on Jun 3, 2007
Submitted on Apr 15, 2011
