30-foot whale shark found dead off Boca Raton

[Guest JMT]

30-foot whale shark found dead in ocean off Boca Raton Inlet

Sun-Sentinel

Posted June 11 2007

Divers with the South Florida Dive Headquarters discovered a dead, 30-foot whale shark, considered the biggest fish in the world, about a half-mile from the Boca Raton Inlet Sunday.

Terry Coburn, a SCUBA instructor for Lighthouse Dive swims near the dead 30-foot whale shark about a half-mile from the Boca Raton Inlet Sunday.

The 31 divers made the discovery at about 10 a.m., just after diving at the Sea Emperor wreckage.

A fisherman told them that he had witnessed a dead or dying whale about 200 yards away. When the divers arrived at the site, they found the brown-and-white fish head down in about 62 feet of water, according to Jeff Torode, captain of a boat owned by the Pompano Beach diving company.

Joe Marino, a diver and photographer, jumped into the water and took photos, while scuba trainer Terry Coburn examined the fish for injuries. "There weren't any signs of it being hurt," Coburn said. But the divers want to know how the fish died, and are contacting authorities for help. "It would have been nicer if he was alive," Torode said of the fish. "It would have been an incredible find."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cshark11jun10,0,1251276.story

[ryan2772]

sometimes things die. it's kinda how nature works.

[Guest LeVeL]

[Guest endymion]

That's funny as hell.

A real sperm whale really did die and wash up on a sand bar near Key West a few months ago. The thing was so huge they had to leave it there to rot.

[poysoniv]

must be something in the water that killed it :'(

[Guest saintjohn]

http://theexplodingwhale.com/

[Guest pod]

The thing was so huge they had to leave it there to rot.

That scene in the movie was the best. That nearly naked tall Russian girl came running up. 8)

Oh, and yeah, like Saintjohn pointed out, they could have just blew it up.

[ryan2772]

http://theexplodingwhale.com/

that's some weird shit right there.

[Guest endymion]

Oh, and yeah, like Saintjohn pointed out, they could have just blew it up.

I think they tried and then gave up. I tried to look it up but I guess it didn't make any news sites outside of the Keys. I think it was on a sandbar just northeast of Big Pine Key.

I remember it because I had never before realized that we even HAVE sperm whales here.

[Guest Marina22]

Would have been cool to see even if it was dead, as a diver, not something you see everyday.

[Guest endymion]

Whale story for today:

19th-century weapon found in whale

BOSTON - A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago.

Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.

[MIRZA1414779019]

Whale story for today:

19th-century weapon found in whale

BOSTON - A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago.

Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.

Wow I didn't realize that they lived that long. What a crazy story.