#exploding whale

I've been to the place that did this, nice town.

Whalesplosion, the Exploded Whale Oremon, is up next! These rare and huge creatures float in the air along ocean shorelines. If encountered, keep your distance unless you want a nasty surprise!

He provides context and additional — dare I say delicious? — details I had forgotten.

This thumbnail is fucking sending me. The video title suggests that this is going to be about putrefaction and the build-up of internal gasses however I know exactly what is happening in that thumbnail picture. That is not what happens when a whale explodes from gas buildup. That is what happens when a whale explodes because someone lit 20 cases of dynamite on top of it. I am very familiar with both scenarios and that is definitely the second one, which is not a common occurance on the grounds that setting off 20 cases of dynamite on top of a dead whale is an extremely ill-advised course of action. Once again cetological clickbait succeeds in making me laugh very hard. Well done, youtube.

The infamous "exploding whale" incident occurred in Florence, Oregon, in November 1970, when state officials decided to dispose of a decomposing eight-ton sperm whale carcass that had washed ashore. Lacking conventional removal methods, the Oregon State Highway Division made the highly unconventional decision to use a half-ton of dynamite, hoping to reduce the remains to manageable pieces for scavengers. The plan failed spectacularly, with the detonation instead launching large chunks of putrefying blubber over a quarter-mile, raining down on spectators and notably crushing a parked car. Captured on local news footage, the bizarre disposal disaster was largely forgotten until humourist Dave Barry wrote about it in 1990, after which the video's viral spread on the early internet cemented the "exploding whale" as an enduring, globally recognised piece of American folklore.