A Whale?!?

Two days ago we caught word of a whale that had been beached not too far away from us.  The story went that it had been injured and unable to swim very well so it had died and washed ashore.

We decided to pay it a visit because how often do you get to see a whale?

So after about two hours of driving and multiple stops for directions, we found ourselves on a beach in northern mayo.  We walked along for a while and finally saw it.

The first thing that struck me about it was the size.  It was 40-50 feet long and six feet in diameter.  It’s mouth was open and that too was immense, it looked like it could swallow a soccer ball whole.

The second thing that struck me about it was the smell.  It smelled like an open fish market that had been sitting in the sun for a day or two.  Honestly, I thought that I would have been able to smell it from further away, not that I am complaining in the slightest.

The one thing that I was most fascinated with was the mouth, and upon further examination of it, I saw that someone had come before it and cut out its teeth.

I am by no means an animal rights activist, but that struck me as a very strange thing to do.  The way that they were cut it was clear to me that whoever had done the cutting had planned to do so before seeing it. 

It is an interesting ethical situation.  The whale was just left there to rot, no one was going to bury it.

Seeing it dead on the shore made me think of it swimming in the ocean.  Thinking of a pod of these massive animals swimming together is kind of blowing my mind.

Thanks for reading,

Have a fantastic day,

Willie