The Dead Whale

[Andrew]

Dead whales protected. The height of lunacy.

[PaulW]

To stop people killing them, I would guess.

[Mitzi M]

As excited as I am about the chance to see cetaceans up close, and as cool as it would be to have some awesome bones (if it weren't against the law to get them) last week I had to hike a ways upwind of the carcass and I will tell you truly that the way it smelled was profoundly disturbing. I count it as a great accomplishment that I managed not to eject cookies(barely). The strange and awful, gut wrenching stench seemed to somehow linger in my nose (or memory) for a couple of days even after I showered a few times and had washed my clothes. I can only recommend gawking with binoculars from far far upwind.

BTW - it sure looked like a humpback to me but then I wasn't so close. A friend told me about how they initially found the whale outside the breakwater in March and the folks on the UH vessel watched a bunch of tiger sharks taking huge chunks of it. I think they were pretty sure it was a humpback.(?)

[Alaskana]

The funny thing is that I have tons of legally harvested and bought baleen back in Alaska. Paid $60 for a 9' stick that has been scrimshawed. Whale ivory has been on my list of stuff to get, but I guess given the laws here, I'll have to spend my $ elsewhere.

Btw whale harvesting isn't illegal in a lot of places. That said, it does taste like and feel like you are chewing an old tire. *shrug*

Wonder how much my whale "teeth" would sell for down here I hear the tourists love it

[Alaskana]

On topic though, considering it is a health hazard, the state should look into something to speed up decomp and get it gone. Preferably without the use of explosives lol.

Dragging it away is never gonna happen. Only things I can think of would be caustic solutions, chainsaws, or otherwise useless stuff. The Swiss do this thing with bodies and liquid nitrogen, but that's still insane on this scale.

[Kapohocat]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mitzi M...last week I had to hike a ways upwind of the carcass and I will tell you truly that the way it smelled was profoundly disturbing. I count it as a great accomplishment that I managed not to eject cookies(barely). The strange and awful, gut wrenching stench seemed to somehow linger in my nose (or memory) for a couple of days even after I showered a few times and had washed my clothes. I can only recommend gawking with binoculars from far far upwind....

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I'm with you on this one! We stayed about 1000 ft back and that was as close as I wanted to get. I spill cookies at the smell of milk gone bad!

Kudos to Aunty & gang for working to get DLNR & NOAA, etc involved right at the beginning to deal with it!

[Carey]

One of the UH-H Marine Mammal Response team was assisting with the Coconut Island Dive for Earth Day cleanUp that I was co-sponsoring.

Found out that there were 2 different whales.
The deceased & decayed whale at the Hilo Bay breakwater was a humpback & the rotting whale corpse in Kapoho was (is?) a sperm whale...

[PaulW]

Is it still there or did the high tide get it?

[aunty]

The DNLR,University and the Mammal folks are here daily. The pochers are being prosecuted and their treasures have been confiscated, as per Federal Law. A Hawaiian blessing was performed.The Whale is decaying and naturally disappearing. The U has harvested the jaw bones and teeth, pluse bones. This has been an on going learning center. Our own special classroom. Thanks for sharing.

[Mitzi M]

I saw in the article in the paper and then again out at the new FWS signs information about stranding. This didn't make any sense to me when I thought the whale was the one from the breakwater, but now I wonder did it actually strand there, or did it die at sea and float ashore. Anybody in the know about that?