Anyone hear about a beached whale?

[skierbri10]

No not the tourists on the strands, :14: but I heard someone talking about one in Waimanalo. I haven't seen any reports about it. Then again I don't watch local news very often.

 

[Cacia]

Yes, it died and it smelled. The municipal guys came with a big truck and forklift thing and took it away. It looked like melted bubble gum as they were lifting it up. They were saying to watch out for sharks for a bit over there.

 

[ch0ppersrule]

they hauled it off to some landfill area. It looked pretty disgusting. Had the reporters not said it was a whale I wouldn't have known what it was. Solid white and kinda stringy looking. I missed the report where they were lifting it up, but I am sure glad I missed the video of it. Don't know how long it had been beached.

 

[justleesa]

here is an article on it. http://kgmb9.com/kgmb/display.cfm?storyID=7317
doesn't look anything like a whale....

 

[justleesa]

Here is a report with some local talk

Whale carcass removed from Waimanalo beach
Linda Coble


They're breathing easier along a stretch of Waimanalo Beach Thursday night.

The whale carcass some nicknamed "Jabba the Stink" is buried and gone. But it took a front-loader and a whole lot of patience.

The mass of blubber and muscle that was once the mid-torso of a whale has been the talk and aroma on a stretch of Waimanalo Beach since last weekend. The State Transportation Department couldn't get its heavy equipment there fast enough.

"Down on the beach every morning, me and my wife. It's been bothering us," says Kennies Rowe, resident.

Behind the controls of the front-loader is Nelson Pahia, whose job it was to drag the carcass to the nearest driveway and into a waiting dump truck.

"Once I got the momentum going I pulled 'em all the way, just hold 'em like that. The tires start getting digged in, had to start working them again," says Pahia.

They still don't know what kind of whale this was. It probably died two months ago, and had been floating off Waimanalo for at least two weeks before washing ashore. Fishermen like these floaters because they attract fish, but marine officials wish they would report the carcasses. Towing it out to sea is a lot easier than this.

Fortunately, this carcass had some bones and muscle to grab onto.

"Cause you going to bite any other way, she going to slide right off, just like you holding onto jello, you know," says Pahia.

And still, the jello missed the mold four times.

Until finally Pahia's deft maneuvers plopped the blob into the dump truck for the ride to the other Waimanalo -- the landfill at Waimanalo Gulch, where a special hole was prepared.

"All the people is happy now, they never had that smell no more, yeah," says Pahia.

The stench has dissipated, but whale fragments are still bobbing off shore.

"Well, I wouldn't swim here for the next two or three days because there's a chance it could attract sharks," says Jeffrey Walters, Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Jabba the Stink is out of sight and out of smell, and still making trouble in Waimanalo.

 

[skierbri10]

I was snorkling out there just the day before. Thank God I didn't see it, I would have been sad for awhile if I had seen that.

 

[justleesa]

sick from the smell for a while too I'm sure...yuck

 

[Cacia]

Where is kompressor when you need him?...he coulda made whale gumbo and posted a photo.

 

[fishb0y]

Where is kompressor when you need him?...he coulda made whale gumbo and posted a photo.

You just had to start it... Well if it was used for Japanese school lunch, people wouldn't have had to deal with the mess and the smell.

 

[justleesa]

ewww...there goes my imagination, running wild......wouldn't it smell worse if cooked?