Dealing with dead whales may be about to change thanks to a study that highlights the sustainable, cultural and ecosystem benefits of relying on nature to dispose of the bodies. Not only did it reveal that we could predict where they might appear with “surprisingly high accuracy”, but the alternative solution could keep the whales’ nutrients in the marine ecosystem and out of our cars – something previous disposal methods have failed to achieve.
Who could forget the great whale explosion in Oregon in the 1970s? In 2020, we got to witness it in glorious 4K when the Oregon Historical Society celebrated its 50th anniversaryth anniversary by posting footage of a frankly confusing event.
When the Highway Patrol was tasked with disposing of the beached sperm whale, they called the Navy and were informed that the best course of action was to blow it up. Many flocked to the beach to witness the bloody spectacle, but left with more than a few gory photos as cars were destroyed by giant falling chunks of dead whale.
So it seems obvious that blowing up corpses isn’t the way to go, but letting huge corpses rot – and possibly explode of their own accord – isn’t ideal when there are people around. So what else?
A chance encounter with a 14-metre female humpback whale offered scientists led by Dr Olaf Meineke of Griffith University’s Whale and Climate Research Program an opportunity to find out. A ship strike is believed to have brought the whale’s life to an untimely end in July 2023, and so they intercepted the remains before it washed ashore.
Instead, they moved it 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) out to sea and attached a satellite tag that could tell them where it went during the six days it moved before sinking. This was the first study of its kind to track the movement of whale remains and proved to be an effective way to keep the whale away from any beaches until it was ready to become a whale fall – known as a major event for bottom-dwelling scavengers.
“As we see more and more whales stranding on Australian beaches in recent years, the effective, safe and culturally sensitive removal of whale remains near or on public beaches has become a major issue,” Meineke said in a statement. The study shows that predicting where whale remains might end up when they float out to sea is possible with surprisingly high accuracy.
Whale carcasses are very valuable to seabed creatures, but take several days to sink, during which time they can end up on beaches.
There are currently seven main ways of disposing of whale carcasses:
- Relocation of the landfill
- Transport to a facility that can break them down into byproducts
- Composting
- Funeral
- Natural decomposition where they beached
- Immersion of the remains
- Using explosives to smash them
However, none of them is a perfect solution, as they are all either expensive, logistically complex, or – as we saw in the Oregon incident – not particularly safe. It seems, then, that simply towing the whales out to sea could provide a simple solution with multiple benefits.
“Dead whales provide a significant source of nutrients for marine ecosystems and the strategic placement of whale remains at sea can improve nutrient cycling and promote biodiversity, contribute to carbon removal and seabed enrichment for up to seven years” , Meineke added. “Their gradual decomposition supports scavengers and detritivores and sustains microbial communities and deep-sea organisms.”
“The best strategy for handling whale remains depends on many factors and must be decided on a case-by-case basis. Offshore disposal can be an ethical, cost-effective and safe option if managed appropriately.
The research was published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.
