1/5/2006: Beached whale removal, New Zealand
 

http://cellar.org/2005/deadwhales.jpg

I really don't know what it is with IotD and whales, but here's yet another whale feature.

This is part of a massive whale beaching in New Zealand. IotD has covered New Zealand whale beaching before - in this case, 120 pilot whales beaches themselves, and conservationists saved most of them, but these few didn't and they have to be managed somehow. Even if it's sad, it's also interesting to see what they have to do, getting heavy equipment out and lining them up for removal.

Maybe Greenpeace could market them to the Japanese?

I think they're already on it..
The japanese working in his Hitachi crane and the Greenpeace guy have an eye on the remaining plantlife. :D

I suppose that blowing them up with dynamite is right out?

120 beached themselves at the same time.

smacks of ritual sacrifice. what color kool aid do you think they like? are we gods to them? we take them brutally and randomly in ways they don;t understand. look at it through the whale's eyes. they're smart enough to identify us by sight. did these 120 whales think to save others with their sacrifice? very noble ani...... i was gonna say animals........but....

more along those lines:

we threw back 114 of them. will they be seen as unworthy and shunned by the pod? will the six that did not return be remebred with glory and admiration?

this is freakin me out, man.

Martyrs?

Please reduce the THC levels in your blood to managable levels.

i'm still at work, dad.

you don;t think whales are smart enough to get religion?


have you MET george Bush?!

It's the whale's equivalent of people drowning. :smack:

:lol:

They're too small, I think.

Really awesome video of an attempt to blow up a beached whale with dynamite:

http://www.dogpatchgazette.com/humor/movies/whale.avi

i've seen that video, well worth it to watch.

One reason for the beachings, don't know if it apples to this one, is the underwater sonar that the Navy is using to communicate with. Imagine listening to an earsplitting car alarm all the time. They think that beachings have gone way up because the whales can't stand it.