The correct use would have been wailing, wouldn’t it?
Nope. I thought so too, so looked it up!
Live & Learn... :)
Whale can refer to a person who is impressive in some way (like a whale is in size), such as a gambler who places large bets. The term is used that way by the character Sam "Ace" Rothstein (played by Robert De Niro) in the 1995 Martin Scorsese film Casino, who at one point calls a gambler named K. K. Itchikawa "a whale … who plays thirty-thousand dollars a hand in baccarat." "That's the one you really gotta watch," he advises. (The term whale watching, by the way, as used in ocean tourism, is a relatively recent addition, being first sighted in the mid-1900s.)
Whale is also a verb for the action of hitting something (such as that gambling table, or a punching bag) forcefully and repeatedly. This might be surprising to those people who misuse the identically (or, in some dialects) similarly pronounced verbs wail or wale with the meaning of "to hit." The verb whale can also imply attacking vigorously or repeatedly, as in "the team whaled on their opponent 20 to 2"; a person might also "whale away" during a debate (meaning they are verbally attacking their opponent and showing no mercy) or "whale into/at" that person with whom they are debating.
SOURCE: Merriam Webster