Carcass Quest 2012

We had heard that a 50-foot sperm whale carcass had washed up on the bottom of Hawaiian Beaches (News: Sperm Whale).  So of course we needed to go see it...We live on the Big Island, a large dead animal floats ashore and it's a very exciting thing to have happen around here. Beats sitting around and listening to the very much so alive coqui frogs chirping. (Which for the record we don't do...so long as our Internet is actually working)

THE "A" IS OUR HOUSE & HAWAIIAN BEACHES IS IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER

Chris and I drove down to Hawaiian Beaches on Thursday after school to try and see if we couldn't take a gander.  Without knowing where it was we ended up taking a very nice back road into Kapoho, but alas, saw no whale :(

Luckily our friend and co-worker Jane lives in Hawaiian Beaches and had gone to see the whale the same day we did.  The next day we drove down and she took us right to it.  When we got there we were a little alarmed to see a fire truck and an ambulance but it looked like they were just checking out the scene.  I even saw some cell phone photos being taken :)

The neighborhood is very nice, which isn't surprising being that it's right on the water.  The whale carcass is right in front of a house for sale, which prompted me to crack,

"HOUSE FOR SALE! WHALE CARCASS INCLUDED!"

The whale is all white, but I think that's because all the skin's decomposed and you're looking at the blubber.  Upon seeing it, my first thought was: "It doesn't smell that bad." And then, "Ah, Captain Ahab, we have found Moby Dick." (I don't know if all these high school English classes I'm observing now has suddenly sparked a revival of all my high school English content or what...)

WHALE RIBS

The following picture is the best Chris took.  The whale was stuck right up against the rocks and the waves were just rocking it back and forth.  The sharks had been feeding on it when it was more out to sea and the combination of the sharks' feeding, decomposition and being in the water was really taking it's toll.

HEAD IS TO THE LEFT AND TAIL IS TO THE RIGHT

DECOMPOSING WHALE TAIL

YES, CHRIS MADE ME POSE WITH THE DEAD WHALE

While posing for the above picture all I kept thinking was..."I'm getting sprayed with whale juice. EWWWWW!" From this side of the whale it smelled WAY worse.  But still, not so bad when you consider it's been decomposing in the water for at least a few days by the time we had gotten to it.

ALL EXCITED TO SEE A BIG DEAD THING

 At first when we arrived there we were bummed that we didn't see any sharks, but then Chris and I noticed a bunch of people staring into the water where we had been standing before (at the head of the whale).  Turned out a big tiger shark had just been spotted.  Chris and I made our way carefully over...it was all sharp lava rock.  Chris of course managed to fall a little and scrape his foot. (Always mangling his feet!)  When we got over to our old locations we had to wait a few patient seconds but we were rewarded with seeing the shark's dorsal pop up for a few seconds.  We waited some more, but didn't see it again so we headed for home.

SHARK SIGHTED!

 What a whale of a tale indeed ;p Mwahahaha aren't I so punny?