Whale Flatulence, Aerial View

Posted by gail in Animal, Everything Else on July 27, 2008 at 8:09 am


whale

News in Science reports:

Scientists have photographed a giant gas bubble emanating from a whale, suggesting that flatulence is just as common for ocean mammals as it is for humans and many other terrestrial animals.

The picture, released last week by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) in Tasmania, was taken by the captain of a U.S. research ship the Nathaniel B. Palmer, while on expedition between Marguerite Bay and Palmer Station, Antarctica.

"The picture is of an Antarctic minke whale taken from the bow of a ship," said AAD principal research scientist Dr Nick Gales. "The white bits in the photo are pieces of ice-floe, the stream of pinky colour behind the whale is a faecal plume – a.k.a. "poo" – the large circle in the water is indeed the physical eruption of the whale’s flatulence."


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COMMENT

27 comments to "Whale Flatulence, Aerial View"

  1. tedd
    July 27th, 2008 at 8:27 am

    pull my flipper!

  2. TwoDragons
    July 27th, 2008 at 8:54 am

    Um........fascinating.

    Are there actually people tracking this kind of thing?!

    --TwoDragons

  3. Adam Stanhope
    July 27th, 2008 at 9:02 am

    As "whale farts" are wholly seafood based, I'll bet they're exceptionally offensive.

  4. Dave
    July 27th, 2008 at 9:45 am

    Imagine the contribution to global warming — or is it global climate change now? — from these monster farts. The nerve.

  5. HollywoodBob
    July 27th, 2008 at 10:53 am

    Ok, so they've proved whale fart, can they move on to curing cancer now?

  6. bean
    July 27th, 2008 at 11:25 am

    Man, I so did not need to know about the "fecal plume". So much for my big beach plans.

  7. dj
    July 27th, 2008 at 11:30 am

    Amen HollywoodBob!! Sure hope it's in my lifetime and the guy with the knowledge to cure cancer isn't too busy watching whales toot.

  8. Thomas
    July 27th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    The trail of poo is longer than the whale. I'm kind of impressed.

  9. Christophe
    July 27th, 2008 at 11:50 am

    "la mer c'est degueulasse les poissons baisent dedans"
    French singer Renaud

    -> The sea is disgusting, fish shag in it.

  10. whitcwa
    July 27th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

    This may explain those mass groundings. They're trying to get out of the pool!

  11. gail
    July 27th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    I wonder if they try to blame dogfish.

  12. felix
    July 27th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    Poor thing probably had a bad curry or kebab and someone decided to photograph it at a moment where privacy was paramount! Mr Whale, i apologize on behalf of the the human population. No seriously, we totally poo a little too sometimes!

  13. alison
    July 27th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    Oh how embarrassing for that whale

  14. kmi187
    July 27th, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    I bet you can warm a house with that amount of gas for like at least a week or 2. Did anyone try to light it?

  15. Ali S.
    July 27th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

    @ kmi187

    A new whale watching activity! They use a stick with a match to light the gas. ;)

  16. Tim Giachetti
    July 27th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

    Geez. I hope to god they never take pics above my house!

  17. Al
    July 27th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

    My life is complete.

  18. otterly
    July 27th, 2008 at 7:53 pm

    What? A whale cant fart now with out a camera up his ass..? Oh Fuck you guys then!

  19. prophet
    July 27th, 2008 at 8:20 pm

    A photo suggests that flatulence is common in whales. Umm okay.

  20. Jeremy
    July 27th, 2008 at 8:53 pm

    Pink poo? Man thats a hard night of drinking. Can't a whale blow a hangover fart in peace anymore?

  21. sigh
    July 27th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

    Here we've been trying to save the whales, when they are causing the greenhouse effect, just like cows. See, Greenpeace is for global warning since they won't let us hunt whales anymore!

  22. Tsauce
    July 27th, 2008 at 11:56 pm

    Haha Jeremy, thats pretty good.

  23. Evilbeagle
    July 28th, 2008 at 2:25 am

    I had a great comment for this, but "pull my flipper" just made me totally lose it and it's slipped my mind. I can hardly type I'm laughing so hard.

  24. Stefan Camilleri
    July 28th, 2008 at 7:07 am

    I'm pretty sure that there are some Maltese farmers that can compete with that ;)

  25. Carl
    July 28th, 2008 at 7:32 am

    My wife and I were laughing our butts off at this one. Very NEAT!

  26. anon
    July 29th, 2008 at 10:09 pm

    no no no... it was the barking spider-fish

  27. jodie
    July 31st, 2008 at 2:52 pm

    silly farting whales! when will they learn?


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