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."
...then it would more correctly be called "a shart"...
Posted by: Jake | July 27, 2008 at 09:00 AM
"I've got a situation ... "
A joke that gets mentioned at least once a day in our house, from "Along came Polly".
Posted by: Carin | July 27, 2008 at 11:06 AM
Whale: It wasn't me. It was the dogfish.
Posted by: gail | July 27, 2008 at 12:39 PM
pre-fart Whale: "Yo - pull my fin."
Posted by: JWebb | July 27, 2008 at 02:38 PM
No.. no.. really.. pull my fin.
Posted by: Whale | July 27, 2008 at 05:25 PM
So *that* explains warm spots.
And dead zones...
Posted by: Tracey | July 27, 2008 at 09:11 PM
Ughhh.. It just occurred to me how many times I've gotten seawater in my mouth...
Posted by: Jake | July 28, 2008 at 03:18 PM
Heh. That is so cool. My fourth-grade humor sense is tingling (not that it ever totally shuts off anyway...)
Posted by: Melissa | July 29, 2008 at 01:00 AM