Fears that the carcass of a blue whale that washed up on the west coast of Canada's Newfoundland Island is in danger of exploding are unfounded, scientists say.
"I think the concerns about that have been overblown -- no pun intended," says Mark Engstrom, a deputy director of research and collections at the Royal Ontario Museum.
The museum will be handling the carcass that washed up on the beach at the small town of Trout River, he says, emphasizing there's no risk gases generated during its decomposition would lead to an explosion.
"It will simply deflate," he says.
It's thought the carcass was one of a number of blue whales that were crushed to death last month by thick sea ice, officials say, with two of them washing ashore, including the Trout River specimen.
"We wish it hadn't happened," says Engstrom. "But this is an incredible opportunity to see one and to work with one."
The museum will take charge of the two carcasses, preserving the skeletons while collection tissue samples for research, said Gail Shea, Canada's Federal Fisheries Minister.
Blue whales can weigh as much as 180 tons and grow to lengths of almost 100 feet. The Trout River carcass weighs in at 380,000 pounds.
Trout River officials, worried the rotting carcasses could be a health hazard and might keeps tourists way, had asked for help in removing them, a call answered by the Ontario museum.
A museum team would be sent to Newfoundland in the coming days, Engstrom says, and will peel away skin, muscles and blubber using instruments called flensing knives, exposing the skeletons for dismantling.
After the skin and blubber are taken to a local landfill for disposition, the dismantled skeletons will be trucked back to the museum in Ontario in large truck-borne containers.
The skeleton will be available for study by scientists around the world will the tissue samples would be preserved for future DNA studies, Engstrom says.
Stranding of whales both dead and living are not uncommon, experts say.
In the United States between 2008 and 2013, 648 stranded whales were reported, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service says.
Of those, seven were of the blue whale species of the type that washed up in Newfoundland.
