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A huge, decaying dead whale on an island in the Down Under attracts locals and even thieves, but the rancid smell of its rotting corpse keeps many at bay. A man who went to see the whale said its decaying fat ruined his sneakers, and others noted that they could smell the foul stench even at a distance of 5 kilometers, according to news sources.
Pathogens on the whale’s moldy body are another reason to move away from the area, Australia’s Gippsland Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) said. . In short, people should stay away from the beach, especially because hungry sharks could swim nearby, hoping to grab a bite from the 16-meter-long sperm whale, the department said.
Whale carcasses are often a problem when they run aground as the gases that build up inside their decaying bodies can cause nasty explosions. Sometimes local authorities preemptively detonate dead whales, as they did in 1970 to a sperm whale in the now aptly named “Exploding Whale Memorial Park, “in Oregon, a decision they quickly regretted.
“The humor of the situation suddenly gave way to a race for survival, as huge chunks of whale fat fell all over the place,” Paul Linnman, a reporter who covered the blast, said at the time. “Pieces of meat went over our heads, while others fell at our feet.”
Related: Whale Photos: Giants of the Deep
In this case, a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) – the world’s largest toothed whale – washed up on the beach at Forrest Caves, a popular scenic destination on Phillip Island in southern Australia on March 6 DELWP Gippsland reported in Facebook post.
The female whale’s final resting place on the beach is difficult to reach with a machine or vehicle large enough to move the animal, so “the whale will be left in place and not removed,” DELWP Gippsland wrote.
The ministry added that it is illegal for people and their dogs to come within 300m of even a dead whale. It is also illegal to take or possess parts of dead whales, they said. But that didn’t stop determined thieves from using the cover of the night to steal parts of the whale’s jaw, The Guardian reported.
Even when it dies, the whale helps scientists learn about the behavior and biology of sperm whales. The researchers took tissue samples, the DELWP reported. Meanwhile, “sucker marks” on the side of the whale indicate the beast had a fight with a giant squid, said Mike Cleeland, an education officer at the Bunurong Environment Center in Inverloch, Australia, said. at Gippsland ABC Radio.
Much like another stranded sperm whale he saw in the 1980s in Australia, this whale “had these sucker marks up to about four inches. [4 inches] diameter, “says Cleeland, as reported by the Sentinel-Times. “These sperm whales dive up to a kilometer [0.6 miles] or deeper to feed on the giant squid, but if they get to a squid and the squid tries to defend itself by wrapping itself around the sperm whale, they end up with these sucker marks – and that was evident on this one- here at Forrest Caves. “
However, it is not known what actually killed the whale. “There is no obvious cause of death so it may just have reached the end of its natural life and washed up on its nearest beach here on Phillip Island,” Cleeland said.
Another dead whale, a 16ft long (5m) humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was found off Port Phillip Bay, not far from Phillip Island, and “plans are underway to relocate the whale tomorrow”, DELWP Victoria wrote on Twitter the 11th of March.
A deceased humpback whale about 5 meters in length was found offshore near Mount Martha in Port Phillip Bay. Plans are underway to move the whale tomorrow – please avoid the area. For more information visit: https://t.co/5gNqgJxhWs pic.twitter.com/leR7q6Q4xlMarch 11, 2021
Originally posted on Live Science.
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