They feed by filter-feeding or suspension-feeding, capturing small food particles from the water they pass through. Serious dilemmas occur when whales become stranded on private land, due to the financial challenges faced by the landowners when removing the remains.

The financial and practical difficulties of moving a dead whale, which can weigh between 1 and 40 tonnes, are heightened by the potential for the decomposing carcass to become explosive. Organisations around the world have used various methods to deal with the giant carcasses before they become an injury risk, with varying degrees of success. If you’ve ever seen whales swimming in the ocean, you’ve probably noticed the many lumps and bumps they have on their skin. These bumps are actually living creatures called barnacles. But what are barnacles, and why do giant whales allow these tiny creatures to live on their bodies? The idea was inspired by the fact that the calcite plates that make up barnacle shells grow by depositing new material at the base. This leaves 'tree-ring' like growth layers that preserve a chemical and temperature signature of the waters in which the barnacles are growing. Last year a video posted on Youtube documented the grisly - and sudden - release of methane gas from a whale carcass that had been decomposing off the coast of Tomales Bay, California. Another video captured the loud sounds heard from two sperm whale explosions on the beach of Ameland island in the Netherlands in 1997.Killer whales, blue whales, and orcas occasionally have barnacles, but it's rare and usually in small numbers.

By attaching themselves to whales, who regularly travel to areas with plenty of food to eat, the barnacles have unlimited access to food. Most barnacles attach themselves on the whale’s head so that they can easily filter the food that the whale spills out of its mouth as it eats. They are guaranteed plenty of fresh food and water in this prime location. The discovery of a stranded whale poses an array of problems for the local councils and organisations tasked with disposing of the carcass. Archive footage from 1970 shows the radical effort made by engineers in the US to use C-4 plastic explosives strapped to the whale carcass in an attempt to “disintegrate” it in a controlled manner, with the intention that birds and other scavengers would feed on the remains. These signals in the shells can tell researchers today which bodies of water a whale has passed through.However, if whales are covered in hundreds or thousands of barnacles, they may become uncomfortable. In such large quantities, the barnacles may also increase the drag a whale experiences as it swims through the water, slowing it down. Are barnacles on whales alive? Barnacles generally don't harm whales, so there's no need to remove them. However, if there are too many, they might irritate the whale skin. When barnacles dig in, they can sometimes scrape off the top layer of the whale's skin. Surprisingly, barnacles don’t stay on whales very long. They typically die or are sloughed off about a year after attaching to the whale, making space for the next round of barnacles. How do whales get rid of barnacles?