Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

like kicking dead whales down the beach
     
         Describes a slow, difficult, and disgusting
        process.  First popularised by a famous quote about the
        difficulty of getting work done under one of {IBM}'s
        {mainframe} {OS}es.  "Well, you *could* write a C compiler in
        COBOL, but it would be like kicking dead whales down the
        beach."
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1997-12-23)