Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

It lacks the classic immortality of Moby Dick but this whale is showing some staying power.

Workers on Briggs Beach in Little Compton spent Saturday burying the 30-foot humpback that washed ashore last week. But even then, some problems arose on the wet sand. (Watch a video at the scene a week ago)

With the pounding surf, the backhoe operator was only able to dig down about four feet before waves started filling the hole, said beach manager Ron Bogle. Then there was the issue of bloating.

Whale experts suggested the backhoe operator first use the teeth of the bucket to pop a few holes in the blubber to allow some buoyant gases to escape. ``He banged on that thing with the claw several times but it didn't make a dent,'' Bogle said. ``That old saying, `As tough as nails?' Well for me it's now as tough as whale.''

Someone suggested using a chain saw ``but no one volunteered to get that close to it,'' Bogle said. It smells pretty bad.

The end result come Sunday morning was that with the pounding waves and the ever more buoyant humpback, ``the whale is right there on the beach and it looks like we never even dug a hole.''

The plan now, said Bogle, is to wait a couple of days in the hopes that the new moon tide may lift the whale higher onto the beach. Then once the tide levels recede workers will dig a deeper hole higher up on the sand.

In the meantime, Bogle said he would be speaking with the local police to see if they could please utilize some high-powered weaponry and shoot a few holes in the whale.

Bogle has already ruled out, however, any explosives such as dynamite used apparently in Oregon to dislodge a similar beached whale.

``They had raining blubber coming down for quarter of a mile,'' he said. ``One lady's car hood was flattened.''

 Tags  Little Compton RI Rhode Island whale

Comments

BackInRI said:

Suggest we spray paint the carcass "RI Budget" and leave it for all to ponder.

Link | June 22, 2009 1:52 PM
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I feel a photo caption contest coming! said:

Heh heh, or maybe "Union Contracts".

Projo, maybe you could run a photo captioning contest this summer...

Link | June 22, 2009 11:27 PM
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