A giant dead whale that rots on an island Down Under attracts residents and even thieves, but the rancid smell of its decomposing corpse keeps many of them away. One man who went to see the whale said the dilapidated blubber had destroyed his sneakers, and others noted that they could even smell the stench from a distance of 5 kilometers (5 kilometers), according to news sources.
Pathogen-shaped whales are another reason to get away from the area, said the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) in Gippsland, Australia. In short, people should stay away from the beach, especially since hungry sharks can swim in the area in hopes of taking a bite of the 52-foot-long (16-foot) potfish, the department said.
Whale carcasses often pose a problem when washed ashore, as gases that build up in their rotting bodies can lead to nasty explosions. Sometimes local authorities will inflate deadly whales, as in 1970 for a potfish in the now appropriate name “Exploding Whale Memorial Park, “in Oregon, a decision they quickly regretted.
“The humor of the situation suddenly gave way to a survival run as large chunks of whale trunk fell everywhere,” said Paul Linnman, a reporter who covered the blast. said at the time. “Pieces of meat ran high above our heads, while others fell at our feet.”
Related: Whale Photos: Giants of the Depth
In this case, a potfish (Physeter macrocephalus) – the world’s largest toothed whale – washed ashore at Forrest Caves Beach on March 6, a popular scenic destination on Phillip Island in southern Australia, DELWP Gippsland reported in a Facebook post.
The last resting place of the female whale 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 its place and not removed’, wrote DELWP Gippsland .
The department added that it is illegal for humans and their dogs to get within 300 meters of a whale, even a dead one. It is also illegal to take or own dead whale parts, they said. But that did not stop determined thieves from using the cover of night to steal parts of the whale’s jaw, The Guardian reports.
Even at death, the whale helps scientists to learn more about the behavior of the potfish and biology. Researchers have taken tissue samples, reports DELWP. Meanwhile, “piston marks” on the whale’s side indicate that the animal was struggling with a giant squid, Mike Cleeland, an education officer at Bunurong Environment Center in Inverloch, Australia, told Gippsland ABC Radio.
Like another beach whale he saw in Australia in the 1980s, this whale ‘had these piston marks of up to about 10 centimeters. [4 inches] diameter, “said Cleeland, as reported by the Sentinel-Times. ‘These potfish dive up to a kilometer down [0.6 miles] or more in depth to feed the giant squid, but when they get to a squid and the squid tries to defend itself by turning the potfish, they end up with these piston marks – and that was evident on this one Forrest cave . ‘
However, it is unknown what actually killed the whale. “There is no obvious cause of death, so it may 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 humpback whale 16 feet long (Megaptera novaeangliae) was found abroad in Port Phillip Bay, not too far from Phillip Island, and ‘plans are being made to relocate the whale tomorrow’. DELWP Victoria wrote on Twitter on March 11th.
A dead humpback whale about 5 feet long was found near Mount Martha in Port Phillip Bay. It is currently planned to relocate the whale tomorrow – avoid the area. For information, visit: https://t.co/5gNqgJxhWs pic.twitter.com/leR7q6Q4xl11 March 2021
Originally published on Live Science.