Fifteen years ago today, the dead sperm whale was being towed through the streets of Taiwan when it exploded, covering nearby people, cars, and shops in blood and guts. The whale was being delivered to a research centre near the southwestern city of Tainan. People walking by were splattered with blood. Body parts were scattered across the road when the whale exploded.
One resident said: ”What a stinking mess.
“This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful.”
A marine biologist blamed the explosion at the time on pressure from gases which had built up in the mammal as it began to decompose.
Local residents wore masks as they cleaned up the blood and body parts.
The sperm whale had died earlier on a Taiwanese beach and had been collected so its carcass could be used for research and educational purposes.
Professor Wang Chien-ping, of the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, wanted the whale to be moved to the Shi-Tsao Natural Preserve after his own institution refused to allow a post-mortem examination on its own premises.
But despite the explosion, enough of the whale remained to allow for an examination by marine biologists.
Professor Wang said during his initial observations the whale was an older bull and that its weight of 50 tonnes and 17 metre-length made it the largest whale ever recorded in Taiwan.
Reports say because of the whale’s size, it took 13 hours, three large lifting cranes and 50 workers to get the mammal loaded on the trailer for its final trip.
Professor Chien-ping said the animal was nearly dead when it was discovered dried up on the beach and had died by the time help arrived.
He added: ”Because of the natural decomposing process, a lot of gases accumulated, and when the pressure build-up was too great, the whale’s belly exploded.”
Sperm whales have the largest brain of any creature known to have lived on Earth.
Their heads also hold large quantities of a substance called spermaceti.
Whalers once believed the fluid was sperm, but scientists still do not understand the function of spermaceti.