The Oregon Exploding Whale

Disposing of animal carcasses can be a problem. Left unattended, they cause an unpleasant smell and can even be the source of disease. One way or another, they need to be dealt with.

They can, of course, be buried, or even burned. In remote areas, they can be left to the attention of scavengers.

**Photograph of the whale before the incident. Image via Wikipedia.**

But what do you do if the carcass in question is 45 feet long and weighs over 8 tons?

That was the problem facing the Highway Division of Oregon state in 1970. The carcass of a sperm whale washed ashore near the city of Florence on the central coast of the state.

At that time, the Highway Division was responsible for the upkeep of beaches.

They decided to use dynamite to blow the carcass into pieces small enough for scavenger birds to consume.

They didn’t have an explosives expert available, so they made a guess at the amount of dynamite required. They decided to use almost half a ton of explosives.

What could possibly go wrong?

Oregon And Whales

The state of Oregon, on America’s northwest coast, is a prime place for whale watching. In winter, thousands of Gray Whales pass the coast, heading from cold Alaskan waters to Baja, Mexico.

In spring, the same whales make the journey in the opposite direction, heading north.

Thousands of visitors come to the state during Whale Watch Weeks in December and March. They watch as the Gray Whales come close to shore to feed during their migration.

But it isn’t just Gray whales that come close to Oregon’s shores.

This habitat also includes humpbacks, blue whales, fin whales, and even sperm whales. Not all of the whales pass safely. Every year, a number of dead whales wash ashore on Oregon beaches.

That’s a problem because some of these whales are massive. Sperm whales may reach a length of 60 feet (18m), and blue whales can reach 100 feet (30m) in length. Carcasses may weigh over 100 tons.

If left, these carcasses can take months or years to decompose and disappear. No one wants their beach defiled by a smelly, rotting whale. But just how do you remove tons of decomposing whale?

Whale carcass disposal options include removing it to a landfill site, burying it on the beach, or incineration.

None are easy and all are dependent on the size of the carcass. Today, there are specialist companies that can assist with this process of carcass removal.

Back in 1970, options were more limited.

The 1970 Oregon Whale Carcass

Around 7th November 1970, the carcass of a sperm whale washed ashore on a beach south of the Siuslaw River. It was 45 feet long and estimated to weigh around 8 tons.

It had been dead for some time, and the smell from the carcass was extremely unpleasant.

The beach was a popular destination for visitors and residents of the nearby city of Florence. Something had to be done. But what should that be?

Responsibility for beaches in Oregon lay with the Oregon Highway Division (now called the Oregon Department of Transportation).

As highway engineers, personnel in the department understandably had little experience of dealing with dead whales.

They contacted local rendering plants and asked whether any were interested in using the carcass to make fertilizer. None were interested because the carcass was just too big to be easily removed.

They wondered whether they could just leave the carcass to decompose and be eaten by scavenging gulls. Local people made it clear that they wanted a more rapid solution.

Highway engineers were familiar with obstacles such as large boulders that were in the way of a new road. These things were generally removed by using dynamite to blast them into small pieces.

Within days, a decision was made that the whale carcass would be treated just like a large boulder.

Dynamite would be used to blast the carcass into bite-sized pieces that would appeal to local scavengers.

The carcass and the resulting debris would quickly disappear. It seemed like an efficient and rapid way to get the rotting carcass off the beach.

Or so they hoped.

Preparations

Oregon Highway Division personnel had prior experience of blowing up boulders, but less with dead whales.

How much explosive should they use, and where should it be placed? It was decided that 20, 50-pound boxes of dynamite should do the trick.

The explosives were placed under the shoreside of the carcass. This should blow parts of the body into the sea, where it would be washed out on the outgoing tide. It seemed like a great plan.

A former military explosives expert who happened to be in the area took a look. He estimated that around 20 sticks of dynamite (around 8lb of explosive) should be sufficient.

He was very concerned when he realized that almost 1,000 lbs of dynamite had been placed under the carcass.

The Highway Division announced that the whale carcass would be blown up on Thursday, 12th November. Reporters and spectators began to arrive during the morning, all positioned upwind of the pungent remains.

Some even suggested that the explosion should be delayed for a few days to allow more people to watch.

But the Highway Division was keen to get the job done. Sheriff’s deputies moved spectators back to dunes around a quarter of a mile from the carcass. Cameras, binoculars, and telescopes were trained on the rotting whale.

George Thornton, assistant district highway engineer, supervised preparations. When he was satisfied that everything was in place and everyone was at a safe distance, he gave the signal. The plunger was pressed.

A Whale Of A Bang

The explosion was more dramatic than anticipated. A column of sand and chunks of whale were blasted more than 100 feet into the air. Instead of heading out to sea, most of the debris was flung inland, towards the spectators and a parking lot.

**The moment the explosives were detonated.**

Spectators first shouted with excitement at the sheer scale of the blast. Then pieces of rotting whale began to fall amongst them. The shouts turned to consternation.

Many of those watching screamed in terror as they realized that massive chunks of whale were falling from the sky.

There was no time to run, but by a miracle, no one was hit by any of the larger pieces. However, many did find themselves liberally sprinkled with a rain of small pieces of rotting whale carcass.

Walter Umenhofer, the military explosive expert who had stayed to watch, had left his car in the nearby parking lot. When he returned, he saw that the car had been flattened by a large falling chunk of blubber. The car was less than one year old.

He had purchased it during a special sale: the “Get a Whale of a Deal” offer. Looking at the flattened car, he sadly told reporters: “My insurance company’s never going to believe this.”

The seagulls that had been expected to feast on the remains vanished, probably scared away by the massive explosion.

Highway Division workers with shovels fanned out across the beach and parking lot. Equipped with shovels and a front loader, they slowly began to remove the larger pieces of carcass.

George Thornton was interviewed by reporters. He told them: “It went just right.” However, he did admit that no one had anticipated the sand below funneling the explosion into the sky.

Later, he agreed that perhaps a little more dynamite had been used than was ideal. And that scattering the carcass across the beach and surrounding area wasn’t a perfect outcome. And that if any more whale carcasses turned up on Oregon beaches, they wouldn’t be blown up.

Aftermath

Walter Umenhofer received full payment from the Highway Division’s insurance company after the destruction of his car. The insurers did agree that having a vehicle flattened by falling blubber was an unusual claim.

**The roof of a car completely flattened by debris.**

George Thornton consistently refused requests for interviews about the incident. Friends said that he had become “grouchy” about his involvement with the exploding whale. When he died in 2013, many obituaries named him as the “exploding whale engineer.”

When the Internet gained followers in the 1990s, the story of the Oregon exploding whale became a firm favorite. A YouTube video of the explosion and subsequent rain of blubber has received millions of views.

Fifty years later, people in Oregon still talk about the day that the Highway Division blew up a whale.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this story is that Oregon in 1970 wasn’t the only example of an exploding whale.

Using explosives to reduce a whale carcass to smaller chunks has been done many times since around the world. Though rather less dynamite has been used to produce less dramatic results.

There is even one case where a whale carcass exploded spontaneously. In January 2004, a fifty-foot sperm whale died after being washed ashore in southwestern Taiwan. Marine biologists decided to move the carcass to a university facility for study.

It was loaded onto a massive trailer using cranes. As it was being driven through the crowded streets of the city of Tainan, it exploded. People were showered with blubber and blood, and the street was briefly closed.

Researchers later decided that decomposition had caused gases to build up inside the carcass. When these reached a critical pressure, the whale exploded.

Removing stinking whale offal from the streets of Tainan proved to be no easier than from the beaches of Oregon.