US Agency seeks homeowners that will allow dead whales to rot on their private beaches
US agency seeks 'hosts' for rotting whales amid die-off
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — So many gray whales are dying off the U.S. West Coast that scientists and volunteers dealing with the putrid carcasses have an urgent request for coastal residents: Lend us your private beaches so these ocean giants can rot in peace.
The number of dead whales washing ashore in Washington state alone — 29 as of this week — means almost every isolated public beach has been used. Authorities are now scrambling to find remote stretches of sand that are privately owned, with proprietors who don't mind hosting a rotting creature that's bigger than a school bus and has a stench to match its size.
"The preferred option is, at all times, that they just be allowed to decompose naturally," said John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the Olympia, Washington-based Cascadia Research. "But it gets harder and harder to find locations where they can rot without creating a problem. This is a new wrinkle."
At least 81 gray whale corpses have washed ashore in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska since Jan. 1. If tallies from Mexico and Canada are added, the number of stranded gray whales reaches about 160 and counting,
The first private-beach owners to respond, a Washington state couple, received their carcass earlier this month. Volunteers with the so-called "stranding network" — a coalition of nonprofits, research institutions and government agencies — attached a rope to the dead whale's tail and used a motorboat to tow it 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) along the coast to the couple's beach, where they anchored it to tree stumps.
Mario Rivera and his veterinarian wife, Stefanie Worwag, asked their neighbor's permission first and are using copious amounts of lime to speed decomposition and reduce the stench. They visit the carcass daily and consider it a scientific opportunity.
"It's decomposing nicely. There've been a couple of days this week when I was out there mowing and I was like, 'Oooph,'" Rivera said of smell from the 40-foot (12-meter) adult male whale sitting 150 yards (137 meters) from his house.
n this May 6, 2019 file photo, Duat Mai stands atop a dead whale at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Federal officials are asking waterfront landowners in western Washington to volunteer their properties to be the final resting place for dead gray whales. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries says so many gray whale carcasses have washed up this year they've run out of locations where they can be left to decompose.
"But it's only temporary. It's only going to be smelling for about a month — and after that, the smell's gone."
https://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Rot-in-peace-Sites-lacking-for-whale-corpses-14027139.php#photo-17689045
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