Great White Sharks feeding on a whale carcass

February 10, 2007 9:26 AM

Great White Sharks feeding on a whale carcass. Ever wanted to see what a dead whale looks like? Find it here. How about multiple great white sharks feeding on said carcass? Find it here. How about a mad scientist who climbs on said carcass? And films said sharks with fricken' lazer beams feeding on stinking whale carcass?
posted by KokuRyu (38 comments total)

The smell at that location must have been overpowering.
posted by clevershark at 9:37 AM on February 10, 2007

Old Man Filter
posted by anthill at 9:43 AM on February 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

That's awesome. The "high" sharks in the hypothesized mating-receptive state were especially cool. I did feel like the narrator was over-selling that, though: stretching, "oh, the sharks look like they might be sexually aroused," to mean, "by god this proves my wacky theory!"
posted by grobstein at 9:44 AM on February 10, 2007

They could have just blown it up like they do in Oregon.
posted by Frank Grimes at 9:48 AM on February 10, 2007

"Whale carcasses may be the centerpiece of shark orgies"... Yeah, I liked that one, too [grin].

And I was wondering - what the hell was the point of climbing on the carcass? And what about the diver that had to spend two hours in water saturated with rotten whale flesh?
posted by KokuRyu at 9:49 AM on February 10, 2007

"What an incredible smell you've discovered!"
posted by loquacious at 10:01 AM on February 10, 2007

At least the diver wouldn't be smelling the dead whale.
posted by Flitcraft at 10:06 AM on February 10, 2007

Eating too much. Getting drunk. Acting sluggish. Attempting to mate.

Throw in a football game, and you'd have a typical Sunday afternoon at my house.
posted by frogan at 10:12 AM on February 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

oh, the sharks look like they might be sexually aroused," to mean, "by god this proves my wacky theory!"

Actually, there were seamen in the water.
posted by hal9k at 10:16 AM on February 10, 2007

No one has witnessed the great white mating. But for the first time ever, Strong notices the tell-tale aspect of a large sexually-aroused male.

Yes, Ishmael, we see the dick.
posted by hal9k at 10:23 AM on February 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

.
posted by Gungho at 10:31 AM on February 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

It's raining whale. Halleluhia!
posted by Gungho at 10:34 AM on February 10, 2007

There's also this cool video of sharks attacking seals and then a "robo shark" that had been built to spy on them.
posted by delmoi at 10:38 AM on February 10, 2007

"So, do anything interesting today?"

"I saw a shark's dick."

"Oh."
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:38 AM on February 10, 2007

Gah - what the hell, man? How bout a little warning before an interesting nature documentary descends into shark porn?
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:12 AM on February 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

I can't help but wonder how long it took to wash the smell off.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:14 AM on February 10, 2007

Cool stuff - but after watching Blue Planet and Planet Earth, I've seen enough whale carcasses being fed upon to last me for a while.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:44 AM on February 10, 2007

Mesmerising. What amazed me is that it wasn't just sharks but great whites. Videos of shark sex are rare (although I always thought Mickey Rourke and Alec Baldwin had some Lamniformes' blood in them). I can imagine that scientist's, er, excitement about the whale buffet orgy. What a dufus for sitting on the last shred of whale carcass. What was he thinking?!
posted by nickyskye at 12:27 PM on February 10, 2007

On one level, it's utter insanity to clamber onto a rotting whale carcass as it's being devoured by sharks. But, faced with the opportunity, how could you pass it up? It's like being given a chance to fly on an experimental rocket to Mars. While there's a good chance bad things will happen, the opportunity is worth the risk.

Then again, dying in an exploding rocket is slightly more glamorous than slipping on a stinky piece of whale meat and being eaten.
posted by aladfar at 12:31 PM on February 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

"I saw a shark's dick."
Sharks got two peckers (claspers) each
I could smell that thing through the monitor.
posted by Iron Rat at 12:53 PM on February 10, 2007

Why did he wait until it was a sliver of whale carcass though? Why not hop on the day before when there was more space and the sharks were "intoxicated"?
posted by gomichild at 12:53 PM on February 10, 2007

"Also, I learned that sharks got two dicks each."

"Oh. Why can't you be more like a shark?"
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:06 PM on February 10, 2007

Metafilter: the centerpiece of shark orgies
posted by Hands of Manos at 1:11 PM on February 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Why did he wait until it was a sliver of whale carcass though?
Because he'd had time to to psyche himself up and to rationalize that as the sharks were bloated and lethargic the risk was actually pretty low.
I don't think there was much value, scientific or otherwise, in climbing onboard the carcass, but it was a pretty cool stunt.
posted by Flashman at 1:23 PM on February 10, 2007

I don't think there was much value, scientific or otherwise, in climbing onboard the carcass,

Bragging rights. He SO got laid that night.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:49 PM on February 10, 2007

well, maybe he got laid several days - and several showers - later
posted by cubby at 2:07 PM on February 10, 2007

Similar set of events from just off Newport Beach in 2001;
Newport Beach Lifeguards.
We were sitting in the bar watching the tvs when we got a call from the llifeguards to watch Channel 4. So then the parasail boat captain starts heading out along with some other friends in a skiff to go see this up close. They got a bit too close. I should borrow those photos and scan them in. The plan was to drag the carcass far enough out that when it drifted back in to shore it would be way further down the coast and no longer NB's problem.
posted by stuartmm at 2:16 PM on February 10, 2007

Why Do Sharks Have Two Penises?
posted by nickyskye at 2:32 PM on February 10, 2007

That video had it all. Wow.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 2:34 PM on February 10, 2007

#usr/bin/perl
chomp;
print 'pfui".$_;
posted by nj_subgenius at 4:06 PM on February 10, 2007

"No one has ever seen.."
"The biggest ever seen.."
"The most massive ever observed.."
"The first time ever.."

Uh-huh.

19th C whalers saw it all.. and more.
posted by stbalbach at 4:17 PM on February 10, 2007

I think the best of the web has just scaled new heights.

And aladfar: On one level, it's utter insanity to clamber onto a rotting whale carcass as it's being devoured by sharks...that has to be the funniest thing I've read in *years*.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:55 PM on February 10, 2007

Ah, man. I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Cool.
posted by steef at 5:55 PM on February 10, 2007

Bragging rights. He SO got laid that night.

The first thing I thought when I saw him climbing on top of the carcass was, "That's definitely a single man." The reek he brought home was itself enough to end any relationship. (And I have to think that the thought of his girlfriend's/wife's reaction would have been enough to stop him in his tracks, had one existed.)
posted by Jaqi at 6:36 PM on February 10, 2007

19th C whalers saw it all.. and more.

Good point... and good motto.
posted by Mocata at 3:40 AM on February 11, 2007

"This is about the dumbest thing I've ever done," says a man sitting on a slick, slimy, rotting whale carcass that is being devoured by sharks.

This gives me hope. Even I haven't done anything quite that dumb.
posted by leftcoastbob at 8:20 AM on February 11, 2007

"This is about the dumbest thing I've ever done..."

About? ABOUT?

What other dumb things have you done, sir, that rival this one?
posted by frogan at 9:42 PM on February 11, 2007

A few hundred pounds of blubber and suddenly all the sharks are wearing whale goggles.
posted by moonbiter at 12:04 AM on February 12, 2007