It’s a Blue Whale, Nov. 5

A Blue Whale, measuring approximately 80-feet in length, and weighing an estimated 20 tons, washed up on a Curry Co. beach Monday, Nov. 2. The whale could be easily seen from Hwy. 101 about seven-miles north of Gold Beach in the Ophir area. Disposing of a whale this large has never been an easy task. Under the responsibility of the Oregon State Parks Dept., other whales that have washed ashore in the past have been buried in the sand; however, there was one other attempt to dispose of a dead whale back in 1970 that is still legendary in the Florence area. They blew it up with dynamite. That actually created a bigger mess and even damages as some of the large flying chunks of blubber crashed through windshield of a big Buick parked nearby. It was an eight-ton, 45-foot long Sperm Whale. Lesson learned, when a pod of 41 Sperm Whales washed ashore in nearly the same located in 1979, state officials buried them this time.