news story / By Jenoa Briar-Bonpane

Petrolia’s Whale Tale

Go down the hill a bit and Fire Captain Chris Gilda will point out that the whale skeleton, if preserved, would make a great mentor project for the high school students. Cross the road and Tamar Burris, preschool teacher, says she’ll “support anything that brings something positive to the community.” Keith Leatherwood, surf tour guide, suggests that a bulldozer should be used to “pile driftwood around the carcass and then burn it.” Longtime resident and Salmon Group Board member David Simpson feels the respectful thing to do is to bury the whale intact and then unearth it for educational use. Others muse about what a productive resource the rotting blubber could be to fuel pickups, tractors and lamps, or even to lubricate chainsaws.

Then, there’s always the option of exploding the carcass with 20 cases of dynamite, as was done by the Oregon’s Highway Division circa 1970 when a 45-foot whale washed up on the shores of Florence. The resulting rain of car-smashing blubber chunks prevented this method from winning any awards.

Jacobsen reminds that whale meat is a coveted delicacy for great whites sharks. Even if buried, Jacobsen expects the whale’s oils will continue to attract sharks for one to two years. This is troubling news for the area’s handful of dedicated surfers like Leatherwood (also the son of renowned whale researcher Steve Leatherwood), who admits the shark issue will be “on his mind.” Gilda, another inveterate surf rider, guesses that he “won’t be surfing the mouth for a while.”

In a bigger town like Crescent City, decisions about what to do with a beached whale fall somewhat naturally to local leadership. In their case, the process of dismantling and burying the whale was a joint effort of the chamber of commerce and the Surfrider Foundation. In a place like Petrolia, however, where there is no local government and, as one local resident quips, “the role of mayor is a fluid one,” how such a decision will be made is anyone’s guess.

While there is a scattered chorus of Petrolia residents who like the idea of burying the giant mammal and unearthing it later for public display, the nitty gritty of making it happen poses a challenge and, as Simpson offers, “it’s possible that such a project is beyond the capacity of our community.”

Amidst the swirling possibilities, a few things are clear. HSU’s Vertebrate Museum currently has the only permit to handle the whale. Now that they have gathered their samples, NOAA’s Cordaro says whoever owns the beach can decide whether to bury the whale or let nature take its course. Since this whale lies in repose within the King Range National Conservation Area, it falls under the purview of the Bureau of Land Management. “In most cases, we let the natural process take hold,” said Cathy Stangle, Assistant Field Manager at BLM’s Arcata office. “Though we’re not opposed to burying it, we need some idea of the plan.” (She added that the bureau has no funding to offer, but said that it might be interested in creating some type of interpretive center were the skeleton to be preserved for later display.)

Jacobsen, who has “articulated” other whales, including Crescent City’s, laid out the basics. A group of 10-15 volunteers with “tuna fish sandwiches, knives, knife sharpeners, a four-wheel-drive vehicle or two and a set of clothes they don’t mind throwing away” would need to spend a couple of days peeling away skin and blubber, removing spermaceti and carving the carcass up before dragging the remains into a big hole.

And so the talk continues. Maybe the school will spearhead the project and display the whale on its campus. Perhaps the guy with the backhoe will dig a big hole and the whole town will come out for a whale disemboweling potluck. Then again, it’s possible that the whale will stay where it landed, to decompose gradually and feed the lucky scavengers who live nearby.

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