Whale flatulence stuns scientists

News.Com ^ | August 14, 2003 | Simon Benson

[joesnuffy]

Whale flatulence stuns scientists

By Simon Benson August 14, 2003

IT'S one of the unfortunate consequences of being a mammal - flatulence.

And, more unfortunately for a group of whale researchers, nature took its course right under their noses - literally.

The researchers claim this is the first photograph of a minke whale letting one go in the icy waters of Antarctica.
It was taken from the bow of a research vessel.

"We got away from the bow of the ship very quickly ... it does stink," said Nick Gales, a research scientist from the Australian Antarctic Division.

However, the episode did not detract from their mission, which was to collect DNA from whale dung and attach satellite tracking devices in the first research of its kind to track where the creatures go and what and how much they eat.

Already some incredible stories about whales are emerging.

One pigmy blue whale wearing a satellite tracking tag was found to be returning to a former population off southern Australia which was thought to have been hunted to extinction by Russian whalers.

"Every piece of this research is surprising," said Dr Gales.

"Some is confirming what we thought. We know a lot about humpbacks, but we don't know anything about where they are going.

"Internationally there is a big push ... saying there are now too many whales eating too many fish and so we have to kill them.

"It's important that we determine what impact whales actually have on a fishery such as krill ... and how that fishery interacts with the whale."

The Daily Telegraph

[e_engineer]

[e_engineer]

[okie01]

Free Republic is a compendium of knowledge.

No matter the subject of a thread, there is always somebody in the forum who is a practicing expert...

[Johnny_Cipher]

Nice.

[thesummerwind]

Haven't scientists concluded that methane is a leading contributor to global warming...these whales must be stopped!!!

Yes, they've been picking on the poor cows for years.

[Ichneumon]

I think he may have gotten into some that disagreed with him

We've learned the hard way not to feed the rottweiler anything with wheat in it...

[VOA]

Let's see "The Onion" top this.

[philman_36]

So that's what "There she blows!" always meant!
There be whale farts astarboard!

[thesummerwind]

On the average, a healthy person farts 16 times a day.

Oh no! I'm overhealthy, and so is my wife and .........!

[thesummerwind]

People fart the most in their sleep.

-- insomniacs must be very uncomfortable.

[freedumb2003]

It's Bush's fault.

[Louisiana]

Did you say the whale cut the cheese?

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

ping...

[mt tom]

actually i always was told under all of that whale crap at the bottom of the ocean were crimimal defense lawyers

[HP8753]

That one is gonna itch when it dries. ;-0

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The eat krill...not smelts.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

No big surprise here. Seafood gives me gas too.

[flair2000]

On the average, a healthy person farts 16 times a day.

Take those 16 farts/day, multiply by 120 for an attack sub crew sub crew, that gives you 1920 farts per day. Assume the ship stays submerged for three months, and you get 172,800 farts/deployment. The air in every breath you take underway at some point or another came out someone's posterior. (Yes, it eventually goes through the scrubbers and burners, but it's was always an interesting fact to ponder back in the day).

[Happy2BMe]

You never had this before - A POOPING PING!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

We've learned the hard way not to feed the rottweiler anything with wheat in it...

Could be an allergy. My wife is afflicted with Celiac Disease. Wheat products or anything that contains gluten just do not digest. Your Rotty might have a similar case.