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Digging deep into construction machinery news

Wed 28 May 2014

Gory task for excavator operator on the beach

The operator of this Hyundai R210-9 hydraulic excavator was certainly not having a “whale” of a time when he was called upon to remove the rotting carcass of a sperm whales head that had washed up on Sorrento beach, in the northern suburbs of Perth. Michael lives just up the street from the beach and had heard about the incident on the radio, so he jumped on his mountain bike and rode down to take a look. When he arrived there was already a large crowd gathering, along with some media crews. Apparently the big concern amongst locals was that this might draw great white sharks closer to shore again, which is often a problem at this time of year. Michael was told that “heavy equipment” was being brought in around midday to remove the carcass, so he headed down again later to see just what kind of kit they were using. When he returned the rotting and pungent smelling head was already being moved by the Hyundai R210-9 along the beach on route to a truck that was waiting to take it for disposal. The next day Michael was listening to a parks and wildlife expert talking about the incident on the radio, who made the claim that the head weighed in the region of 8-10 tonnes, Michael said “When I heard him say that I just laughed my head off, to my eyes I estimated it would only weigh somewhere in the region of 1 tonne, just like your average dumpy bag of sand you get from a builders merchants!” Some local newspapers have also described it as a 5 tonne head, so there appears to be some confusion as to its actual confirmed weight.  Apparently sperm whales are the largest of the toothed whales and can grow to more than 18m long and weigh up to 90 tonnes. They are commonly found in ocean waters from the equator to the North and South poles.  

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