There’s an 81-foot-long dead whale on the beach in Trout River, Newfoundland. It’s been there for some time, and as the carcass decays, the buildup of methane gas inside has caused it to swell to twice its normal size. It could explode at any time. And that could make quite a mess. What to do?
Actual solutions to disposing of a whale carcass include: digging a hole, towing it out to sea or cutting it up into smaller pieces—carefully. Trout River has contacted all sorts of state agencies in hopes of getting the carcass cleaned up, the National Post says, but so far, officails have heard, since the whale is in the town's borders, it's the town's problem.
There are plenty of cases of exploding whale carcasses that didn’t turn out so well, many of them linked in the article at Smithsonian.
And now there’s a dedicated site to keep us informed of whether the whale has exploded yet or not. -via Metafilter