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When a massive whale carcass washed up on a Scottish shore on Saturday, beach-goers' first thoughts were to mourn the death of the majestic creature. Their second thought, though, was more tricky: How should they get rid of the massive body?

The carcass of a 13.8-meter sperm whale — that would be just over 45 feet — washed up on Scotland's Portobello beach on Saturday morning, fouling the air and water of the popular beach site. But because of its hefty size, the decomposing whale couldn't be removed that easily, and floated just above the shoreline for several days. Four full days of planning later, the startling photo above, taken by the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), and tweeted by Sue Gyford.

Yes, that would be the tail of a massive whale sticking out of the top of a semi-truck on its trip away from the beach. The rest of the transport process required equally sizable resources. The whale had to first be towed to a nearby deep water harbor, lifted by a crane out of the ocean and into the 18-wheeler, and then was finally dropped off at the top of a landfill. There, marine scientists performed a necropsy. Decomposing garbage made for a unique operating table.

The images from Scotland underlined the problems beach areas have with dead whales: How the heck should you get rid of them?

Explosives

The most (in)famous idea for removal came from Oregon in 1970, when "experts" stuck dynamite into a beached whale, hoping an explosion would completely disintegrate the body. Despite standing back a quarter mile, dangerous chunks of whale rained down on bystanders. As the news man covering the scene says, "The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds." A car well behind the cameras was smashed by a flying piece of whale, and "everyone on the scene was covered with small particles of dead whale." Let's take this idea out of the possible solutions, then.