[lit-ideas] Re: Whales on our Minds

You have probably been following the story of the whales that took a wrong turn up the Sacramento river. Well here in Oregon we too have a whale tale, but it has alas turned felonious. In P.G. Wodehouse's day young folk contented themselves with the occasional lifting of a policeman's helmet. But is that sufficient for the youth of today? No! They make off not only with the Fed's unburied flesh, but also with the right half of a baleen. 

I quote:
The Oregonian State park officials plan to bury the carcass of a 40-foot-long gray whale in the sand area about a mile north of the rocky beach where it washed ashore last weekend. John Allen, the north coast regional manager for Oregon Parks and Recreation said the earliest that the whale could be moved would be Thursday. "There's a high tide on Wednesday night, so we're hoping the whale will be washed out to sea and take care of the problem," Allen said. "If it washes back ashore, we hope it's a more sandy area where we can bury it." A contractor will use a tractor to drag the carcass to a sandy area, and a backhoe will be used to dig a hole to bury the 30-ton whale. Allen said it takes about a year for a whale to decompose. The whale washed ashore at Seal Rock about 10 miles south of Newport either late Saturday or early Sunday after being spotted in the ocean. The whale had been dead for several days. Bruce Mate, director of Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute in Newport, said an examination of the whale did not find a cause of death. He said tissue, urine, eye fluid and other samples will be tested at OSU's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Corvallis to see whether they give clues as to what killed the animal. Mate said the whale was a mature female at least 5 to 10 years old. He said the whale had a basketballsized abscess on its caudal peduncle -- the tail area that connects to the whale's flukes. "This abscess is clearly something that had been going on for some time with this poor animal," Mate said, "but it's not clear whether that had anything to do with its death." A sample of the abscess also will be examined. Sgt. Todd Thompson of the Oregon State Police said Tuesday that someone had removed the baleen from the whale's right jaw and parts of the body and skin, which violates federal law. Oregon State Police and law enforcement agents of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration are investigating.
So remember, if you should come across a large whale of any sort, be sure to keep your swiss army knife secure in your back pocket.
And no, I assure you, the baleen is not currently serving any kind of sculptural function in my own back yard.. 

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon

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