Raining Blubber: When Dynamite and Whale Carcasses Mix

Whale watching is a favorite pastime enjoyed by tourists visiting coastal areas and marine reserves. It’s very exciting to watch the leviathans wallow in the deep waters, flap their enormous tails, and bellow sweet nothings to their marine partners.

Whale watching, however, isn’t half as fun when the subject in question is washed up on the beach slowly decomposing and stinking to high heaven.

This is exactly what happened last week near Los Angeles when a 78-foot long, 100,000 pound blue whale came in with the tide and died a smelly death on the beaches of Ventura County.

Onlookers have turned this unfortunate demise into the newest tourist attraction as rubbernecks detour out of their way to brave the stench and gawk at the cycle of life. Local officials, however, are faced with the nightmare of keeping the morbidly curious away and figuring out how to dispose of the creature.

In the meantime, this reminds me of one of my favorite video clips of all time (above) when a similar situation in Oregon was comedically solved with sticks of dynamite. For a good, sick laugh, be sure to click play!