1013 Whale Explosion (1/2)
The phone rang a few times before it was picked up.
”Hello?”
”Hello? Is this Ke Shaohui of the Fishery Bureau? I'm Zhang Zian. We met before when we were saving that minke whale…” Zhang Zian was worried that the other party had forgotten him, so he introduced himself as soon as he picked up the phone.
”I remember. Is there a problem?”
Zhang Zian glanced at the body of the grey gray whale and tried to give a fast, but clear, explanation. ”I'm so sorry for calling your personal phone number, but if I call the office number for the Fishery Bureau, it would take too long… It's like this––a little north of where the minke whale was beached, there's a dead mature gray whale.”
”Oh? It's already dead?” Ke Shaohui confirmed.
”I estimate that it's been dead for 14 hours. It could have been washed up on shore last night,” Zhang Zian answered.
”All right, I'll record it. I'm currently dealing with a case of illegal fishing. I'll send someone over later. Thank you for calling…”
There was a lot of background noise from Ke Shaohui's side. Employees of the Fishery Bureau could be heard arguing with fishermen.
”No, no, you don't understand.” He knew that the other party did not understand the seriousness and urgency of the situation.
He understood. After all, in Binhai City, there had been no traces of whales at all, and the people in the Fishery Bureau probably did not have the experience to deal with such an urgent situation. They were not familiar with the unique features of the whale, and the efficiency of the public service system was known to be low, which was the case in any country. He was afraid it would take several years to establish effective countermeasures.
”Don't hang up,” he warned in a serious tone. ”It's dangerous to leave a dead whale on the shore! When whales die, their bacteria begins to decompose their cells and tissues. It breaks down their carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and methane, which is the process of decay. But the problem is that whales have really thick, strong skin, too much fat and protein in their bodies, and such a large amount of gas cannot be discharged from the body. It will accumulate in their bodies, and the pressure slowly rises. When the pressure reaches a critical point…”
”What will happen?” Ke Shaohui asked. The background noise was softer. It seemed like he had moved to another area, and it was obvious that Zhang Zian's words and tone had caused him to place a higher emphasis on the phone call.
”It will explode.” Zhang Zian was not exaggerating to scare people. It was not rare to see cases of a whale exploding after it died on the shore.
After the death of most animals, the corpses went through the process of decay, provided that they were not eaten by other scavengers. The process of decay was much the same, but the bodies of other animals would hardly explode after death. There was too much fat in whales––no other animal accumulated so much fat––and it produced huge amounts of gas after decomposition.
There were rumors a few years back that in America a fat man that had a body mass above 500 pounds died. When he was cremated, the oil that spurted out from his body ignited a crematorium in Virginia.
The truth of the news was unknown, but assuming it was true, the culprit was not oil, but gas, including methane, that was produced by the decomposition of the oil. When the skin was heated and melted, the high-pressure gasses accumulated in the body eventually found vent channels and sprayed out with residual grease. Such instances led to fires.
The 500-pound fat man was so ruthless in his death. What would happen when a whale that weighed tens of tons died? There were only three passages connecting the outside world in whales––the cloaca, the throat, and the air vents on its back. Gray whales had two air vents, but there was no vital difference.