Saving the world, one stench at a time!

WARNING: Don't read this post if you get queasy easily.
IF YOU'RE STILL READING: Are you okay thinking about dead animals? If so, read on.
IF YOU WILL BE READING THIS POST: Yay you! Don't say I didn't give enough warning.

Dead Dolphins. Yes, I know it's sad. But death is not what I'll be discussing today; instead I'll be talking about the stench of it.  Death stinks. REAL bad.  Definitely the worst smell on the face of the planet. You do NOT what these aromatic compounds getting anywhere close to your nose. This smell is so hopeless that Febreze wouldn't help a lick (and that's saying something because that stuff does miracles-- have you seen those commercials? If not, go here: http://youtu.be/Btb2z7PXK00).  And then even after a long, hot, soapy shower, or two or three, plus febrezing anything and everything you pass, a couple days later you smell the smelly smell again. Bum bum bummmm! In a panic you try to figure out where it came from. You attempt to logically convince yourself that you must have imagined the smell again,  but you know that you smelled it. The smell is back and following you. It's out to get you and will never ever leave. The smell of rotting dolphin flesh is nothing to mess with, my friends. And multiply that by 3 because that's what I was dealing with... 3 dolphin heads. Imagine rotting flesh here. Actually don't do that. You will regret it.  You will NEVER forget the smell and your brain will remind you of the smell at the most inopportune times, such as when you're done cleaning the house and you have guests arriving in five minutes or you just tried a new recipe that involved you slaying over the stove all day long.  Smelling rotting flesh during these instances (or really any instance at all) may lead you to break down crying or feel the need to burn your house/kitchen/environment to ashes hoping the smell will go away or doing both simultaneously. Any of these three choices are equally as plausible and are all quite terrible, so just don't image smelling dead things, okay? It'll save you in the end, I promise. That's something I can never unsmell though.  This stench is a new ghost that will follow me for the rest of my days.

I know what you're thinking... If it's so dreadful, why would you put yourself in this situation, Hailey?! Answer.... Because it's marine biology aka awesomeness, duh!  And perhaps the reason more people would understand: I'm a volunteer with the Alabama Marine Mammal Stranding Network (ALMMSN).  We go out on calls when there is a dolphin/turtle/manatee that is stranded or beached and help it back into the water, or if it's deceased we'll see how it died by giving an autopsy.  And everything we do with ALMMSN is for research for these wonderful marine mammals.  So this call was studying a collection of dolphin heads from past strandings.  My job: Remove the jaw from the skull. (Fun fact: Dolphin teeth have rings that form each year, so you can age a dolphin with one tooth!) You'd think this job would be a sinch, but you'd be incorrect.  These dolphin heads were frozen when first collected from the field and then thawed out all day so that we could cut off the flesh. So dead dolphins smell bad, but dead dolphins frozen and thawed again do tend to have a riper scent, which turns out to be a smidgen distracting. So I dig in to this head for a while, cutting off all the stinky meat I can and finally have my jaw out- woot woot! AND not a drop of dolphin guts on my outfit or hands (thank you gloves)- but the smell: EVERYWHERE. But I'm tough and can take it.  That smelly smell that smells smelly... yeah. That's my life and it's awesome.  I am totally okay with it so long as it means I'm saving the world, one stench at a time!

And really, who can say they've cut up a dolphin head before?  Pretty much no one.  So clearly I'm the coolest person ever now.  And now that I've written this post about smelly dolphins, I feel I need another shower. That rotting-flesh-stench ghost has found me again.