The Video
About this video...
The original story of the exploding whale first appeared on KATU Channel 2 Portland, OR in November 1970. The story was reported by Paul Linnman with cameraman Doug Brazil who captured the event on 16mm film, the common format for TV news coverage in those days.
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary in 2020, the Oregon Historical Society had the original 16mm transfered to 4K. KATU subsequently released a remastered version of the original news report. Both the original (now) low-resolution internet video and the remastered version appear below.
Since then, the story has been retold countless times, and numerous versions of the original news story have appeared on the internet as a result. Several of them are viewable in the section below.
2020 remastered version
Original version
All of these videos, plus additional exploding whale-related videos, are available at TheExplodingWhale.com video portal on YouTube.
Please note…
If all else fails, you can read the annotated transcript of the original newsreel.
Physical copies of the video (e.g., on VHS or DVD) are not available under any circumstances. Don’t bother asking.