Beached whale in southern France 'could explode' (Video)

There is a lot of head-scratching going on in France right now, as officials rack their brains, trying to decide how best to deal with a dead whale, washed up on a south coast beach.  

Officials say the dead whale is virtually a ticking time bomb, as the rapidly decaying carcass could possibly explode.

In early November, the whale washed up on the beach at Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer, near Montpellier on the Mediterranean coast.  It now seems experts have left it there a tad to long, and it is now urgent that they move the carcass before the gases build up so much that it explodes.

Anaïs Cheiron, project manager of the national reserve of Camargue, told the French media, “Because of the heat, gases form inside the cadaver – hence, the bulging appearance of the whale – and accumulate until they explode.”

According to a local whale expert,  Jean-Baptiste Sénégas, beached whales normally die after a collision with a ship.  Sénégas took samples of the whale's skin, muscles and fat for analysis, but stresses the carcass must be moved soon.  The dead whale can be seen in all its glory on this video from FranceTV.

Experts have been thinking of different ways to remove the carcass, either by sea or land, but they tend to favor whichever approach is the “more practical and less risky.” Cheiron did say the whale could be dragged out into the water and detonated with dynamite, but he says because of the presence of sand banks, boats are unable to get close enough to the shore to drag the whale out.

Apparently another option would be to cut the 15 tonne whale into pieces, loading the remains on to a van using a crane, for later disposal.  However, viewing the video below, that seems like it could be a pretty bad idea.  The incident in the video happened in the Faroe Islands back in 2013 and shows just how dangerous it is to cut into a dead whale carcass.   

Warning: the video has scenes which might be upsetting to those with a sensitive stomach.




Photo: Screengrab from this video

French sources:
The Local
FranceTV