OREGON COAST, Ore. — The dead humpback whale that washed up on Nehalem State Park after it was hit and killed by a boat will NOT be blown up, Oregon State Parks has clarified.
“History isn’t repeating itself,” the agency says.
OSP says that a recent social media post making the rounds was claiming that they were going to blow up the beached whale later in June.
This rumor was likely a reference to the infamous “Exploding Whale” from 1970, an incident that achieved worldwide notoriety after it was filmed and reported on by KATU.
On Nov. 9, 1970, a 45-foot sperm whale had washed up on the beach near Florence, but as KATU reporter Paul Linnman noted at the time, it later became “a stinking whale of a problem.”
Three days later, on Nov. 12,…
