"A whale of a whale..."

A whale of a whale poses whale of a problem

One thing about whales — everything about them is big. And this 45-foot specimen washed up on the beach south of Florence is no expcetion. Its bigness includes a big smell and a big disposal problem. The State Highway Department, faced with the disposal problem, planned Thursday afternoon to dynamite the mouldering heap of blubber in hopes of blowing it into small enough pieces that scavenger birds will eat. Meanwhile, another type of scavenger — apparently human, removed a portion of the whale’s jawbone and teeth Wednesday. The whale was first thought to be a California gray whale, but those dealing with the carcass now conclude it is a sperm whale, since gray whales don’t have teeth and sperm whales do.

Register-Guard photo by Larry Bacon