Last week we brought you the story of a juvenile humpback whale that washed up on shore near the town of Amanzimtoti on South Africa’s eastern coast. Following up on the whale tale, we took our cameras back to the beach to find out how the locals planned to dispose of the giant carcass.

An Amanzimtoti local harvests blubber and meat from the carcass. Image: Earth Touch

The beach was a scene unlike any other: hundreds of locals came, machetes in hand, to help the local waste management team take on the whale demolition after initial plans to dispose of the carcass off-site were foiled by the African sun. “It’s just too much of a health and safety hazard to move it through town,” marine conservation manager at local government agency Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife James Wood told Earth Touch.

The team planned to bury the behemoth just above the tide line instead, but as hours of chainsaw and bulldozer work proved … breaking down a whale is much harder than it looks.

“It might seem strange, but we are happy [the locals] are helping,” Wood said. “They’re doing a great job, and nothing is going to waste.”

During the ordeal, the whale was rolled onto its back, exposing its bloated belly – officials suggested a mere three degree temperature increase would have been enough to cause the whale to blow. (We can’t help but mention that the whale rollover shed light on something else: the animal’s two-metre member … looks like initial reports of the whale’s sex got it wrong, folks!)

source: earthtouchnews.com