Today In Cape Cod History – 94 Whales Beached In Eastham Euthanized In 1984

CCT – On this day in 1984, workers from the New England Aquarium began giving lethal injections to beached pilot whales that could not be saved.

Ninety-four whales, some 20 feet long, were stranded Saturday on a beach in Eastham. The cause of the mass beaching, the largest in the Cape Cod area in recent years, is not known.

Ahh the ’80’s. When Reaganomics, cocaine, and aerosol hairspray ruled the world. Almost a hundred whales wash up on the beach? Nothing a lethal injection can’t take care of.

Can you imagine if this happened today? They would probably kick everyone off of Cape Cod until they figured out what caused it. The fact that they killed these whales is absolutely outrageous by today’s standards. We can’t even let Terry Schiavo die with dignity nowadays, they’d probably put the whales on gluten free feeding tubes and pull all of the doctors out of the people hospitals to keep them alive as long as possible.

Seriously though, what the hell causes 94 whales to beach themselves and commit suicide? I wonder if they saw the future and knew we were going to start roping off the beaches for Piping Plovers soon and they wanted to get one last day at the beach while they still could?