Dead whale washes up on Sandøy, Norway

Locator map of Sandøy, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway

Norway's Coast Guard faced a grim and smelly task over the weekend: Discarding a dead whale whose cadaver was in danger of exploding.

The dead whale had washed up in a bay at Sandøy outside Bergen on Norway's West Coast. It was found by a local resident on Friday and immediately raised concerns because it was showing clear signs that gas had formed inside the whale's stomach.

That meant it could explode, so the coast guard ended up towing the dead whale out to sea and shooting it to puncture the inflated intestines, so the cadaver would sink.