Why Does A Decomposing Whale Explode? - National Geographic

National Geographic spoke to the exploding-whale website’s founder, Andrew David Thaler, a marine biologist who also runs the blog Southern Fried Science, to learn more about the phenomenon of exploding beached whales.

How frequently do dead whales end up on beaches?

Marine mammal strandings, either alive or dead, are not particularly uncommon. [Strandings of] big whales, like blue whales, are much more rare simply because there are very few blue whales left [in the world]. (Explore National Geographic’s blue whale interactive.)

What would cause a whale to explode?

Gas builds up as the animal’s viscera and stomach contents decompose, but whale skin and blubber are tough. The massive throat pouch that you see inflating in all the pictures is designed to fill with seawater and then force it out through baleen [the keratin plate that whales use to filter food].

It can handle a lot of pressure.[Usually what] causes whales to explode is people doing stuff to them, either from bystanders trying to climb on or take a souvenir from the carcass, crews trying to move the carcass, or, in the case of the Faroes exploding sperm whale, intentionally degassing it (graphic video). That’s one very good reason you should never approach a dead-whale carcass.

If the whale died in the ocean, what would happen to its body?

When a whale dies at sea, it will eventually sink. Whales are so big that scavengers aren’t able to tear the carcass apart, so they often arrive on the seafloor intact. The deep sea is generally a pretty low-energy environment, so an entire whale represents a massive influx of food. (Related: “Dead Whale Contains a Bounty of Life.”)