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The beached whale off Hunting Island.

(Updates at the bottom.)

A strange duo of stories have come of Hunting Island this week.

In odd news, a beachgoer found a stick of dynamite in the sand on Thursday afternoon. A county bomb squad team safely exploded the stick.

In sad news an 18-foot one-ton pilot whale stranded itself near the Hunting Island nature center on Thursday (that's the video above) and experts are worried that the incident means other pilot whale teachings are on the way. 

Update December 11: The Island Packet's Erin Moody has followed up, noting that the number of stranded pilot whales has stayed at three, but fears are high that other whales in the area may still endanger themselves. 

Meanwhile, the paper's Rachel Heaton offers a feature report about how the incident has prooved an opportunity for USCB students to learn about whales.