Why You Shouldn't Come Close to a Whale

[Music] why dead whales are so dangerous whales are truly fascinating creatures one of the coolest things about them is they're gargantuan size take the blue whale for instance it's not just the largest living being on earth nowadays it's the largest animal that's ever existed on this planet you could easily walk through a blue whale's arteries and its tongue alone weighs more than a full-grown elephant this almost spellbinding fascination explains why a beached whale so easily gathers crowds of onlookers people don't want to miss out on such a rare opportunity to steal a peek at this giant from up close if only they knew how incredibly dangerous it is to stand near a dead whale today you're gonna find out exactly why that is but first remember to hit that subscribe button to join the bright side of life we put out new videos every single day so don't forget to ring that notification bell so that you won't miss a thing all right back to whales the hazardous thing about dead whales is they tend to explode yes you heard that right and when this happens it's no joke in just a fraction of a second several tons of a whale's insides burst out of its body at over 45 miles an hour flying up to 50 feet in the air and reaching a distance of more than 160 feet that means innocent bystanders risk not only getting covered with disgusting vile smelling goo but also getting injured by a whales enormous heavy guts flying out of its body at high speeds this danger increases tenfold if somebody decides to climb on top of or poke the carcass in fact there have been cases of people standing on a beached whale being literally blown into the air but why exactly do they explode well after a whale dies its insides start to giving off methane a highly explosive gas as a by-product this gas accumulates in air pockets until the pressure reaches unsurpassable levels but methane isn't the only gas that builds up in the body of a dead whale during decomposition several other gases are released and to tell you the truth there a lot stinkier than methane during the process of fermentation different tissues of a dead body dry out producing gases like carbon dioxide during purification proteins and tissue breakdown this not only liquefies organs it also produces some really foul smells you as you can imagine when fermentation and Putra fication come together the result is a huge bloated carcass full of built-up gases and there's one more thing about whales under their extremely tough skin these animals have a thick layer of fat called blubber when you add those two factors to the equation it becomes clear why these trapped gases have a hard time escaping but what about through the blowhole anus or other exits well in a specially larger or more bloated beached whales their own body weight often causes their orifices to close up creating the perfect storm for an impending explosion so that means there are two possible scenarios when it comes to decaying beached whales either the massive creature will explode or the gases will find an exit and the carcass will simply deflate unfortunately you can't know for sure which one it'll be it's a lot like a ticking time bomb ready to go off without warning at any second in fact this process of decomposition happens in the body of pretty much any dead creature it's just that whales explode like a volcano due to the sheer size of these mammals the bigger and animal is especially one with tough skin and a thick layer of fat the more gas and pressure build up in its body that's why a lot of experts believe that local officials should organize transportation to move the carcasses of beached whales back to the sea then after the vicinity has been cleared of noisy onlookers it's safe to make a slit in the carcass to release the internal pressure that way a much more dangerous explosion can be avoided but still even in the case of controlled and planned procedure things can go terribly wrong for example if somebody accidentally cuts in too deep the release of the built-up gases will be extremely wild so it's difficult to control this situation even for experts to give you some idea of what can happen when a bloated whale isn't deflated I'll tell you a few stories in 2004 researchers in Taiwan were transporting a 60 ton sperm whale carcass on a flatbed truck to national Cheng Tong University where they wanted to dissect and study unfortunately the whale unexpectedly burst and route splattering bystanders cars houses and shops with guts and blood gives a whole new expression - there she blows sorry but so far the most spectacular and terrifying whale explosion happened in Oregon in 1970 a large sperm whale washed ashore in Florence and soon turned into a huge smelly disaster local authorities were at a loss as to what to do with the carcass finally they decided to use dynamite their plan was to blast the whale into tiny pieces and thus make it more edible for sea creatures crabs and birds the idea wasn't necessarily bad until something went terribly wrong the officials put over half a ton of dynamite under the whales body a military veteran with years of experience in explosives had warned them that this was way too much but unfortunately no one took his advice so about 70 bystanders were told to move a quarter of a mile away and the explosives were set off the blast was so powerful that it rocked the beach chunks of rotting flesh and internal organs flew into the air and started to fall on the horrified crowd luckily nobody was serious the injured but most cars parked in the vicinity were crushed by the fleshy debris a journalist on the scene Paul linman later recalled that one car was literally flattened by a piece as big as a coffee table the whale's body managed to decorate everything within a radius of eight hundred feet but the worst thing became obvious after the dust had settled the chunks were still too big for any animal to eat not to mention a huge piece of the carcass remained intact even after the explosion so in the end authorities still had to clean up all the mess on their own and now they had an even bigger mess to deal with than before you may be wondering what happens to a whale when it dies at sea nothing unusual actually it's carcass eventually sinks to the seafloor it's too massive for predators to tear apart so the dead animal typically arrives at the bottom in one piece and since whales are so big different communities eventually start growing around this impressive source of food the first animals to arrive and feast are deep-sea sharks hagfish and other predators they break the carcass into pieces and strip off its soft tissues then creatures such as bone eating worms like oh stacks mucus loris destroy the skeleton believe it or not this process can go on for over 30 years and sustain a lot of living beings in the area this means that a whale's afterlife is as ecologically important as its living one have you ever seen a whale in your life either dead or alive do you know any other fascinating facts about these creatures tell us in the comments below show us that you had the stomach to make it to the end of this video by giving it a like thanks for joining us today on the bright side of life

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 8,284,121

Rating: 4.8510342 out of 5

Keywords: whales, dead whales can explode, why dead whales tend to explode, the most dangerous animals, amazing science, whale oregon

Id: dViaNfK8krA

Length: 8min 50sec (530 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 28 2018