This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission. The blue whale that washed up on a southern Oregon beach in 2015 was in rough shape. Scientists couldn’t determine exactly how long the 200-ton, nearly 70-foot-long male had been dead, but several factors stood out.
The subsequent necropsy – the animal equivalent of a human autopsy – revealed high levels of the biotoxin domoic acid, which may not have been fatal, but still could have diminished the whale’s ability to feed and travel.
Then there was the extensive bruising to the skull, right lower jaw, abdomen, and tail areas near the flukes, all suggesting blunt trauma from a collision with a large vessel. Finally, a rash of tooth marks on the whale’s head pointed to post-mortality scavenging from orcas.
Now, 11 years later the whale’s massive skeleton is held together by a large stainless steel armature in preparation for one final migration back to Oregon. If all goes as planned, the skeleton – after help from scientists and specialists from around the world – will be fully reassembled in May outside the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, completing a journey from surf to scientific centerpiece.
Blue whales are, after all, the largest animals ever to populate the planet. They dwarf the biggest dinosaurs ever unearthed and continue to fascinate the citizens and the scientists drawn to study them.
They can, for instance, live for 90 years, with most of that time spent swimming solo in every ocean except the Arctic. Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant and their hearts are heavy as a full-sized automobile.
A trip to Canada They are rare enough, however, that researchers in this whale’s case had to turn to dinosaur preservationists in Alberta, Canada to help with the thorough cleansing of its oil-infused bones and reassembled for public display. Even then, experts at Dinosaur Valley Studios needed to find specialists from the United States, Japan, Iceland, Australia, and Belgium to get a bead on exactly how blue whales swim and forage.
Before that final step could ever be taken, the whale’s bones needed to be removed from the beach, placed on flat-bed trailers, and driven to Newport for initial cleaning. The bones were placed in large bags crafted from fishing nets, lowered into the waters of Yaquina Bay outside the Hatfield Center in April 2016. They remained there, tethered to the bottom by steel cables, for more than three years. That gave the briny water, along with crabs and other marine creatures, time to strip the bones of most of any remaining flesh.
Bones in the ocean Hadfield’s studio in Alberta’s Drumheller Valley won the subsequent reconstruction contract and work has proceeded since.
One final journey In Newport, Ballance and her colleagues have blocked out the weeks of May 11 and May 18 to mount the skeleton on the armature being constructed in Canada. Coastal weather will ultimately determine which week the work will be completed.
The project’s final budget has yet to be determined, but it is likely to exceed the initial $450,000 estimate. A sign accompanying the skeleton will display the names of people and groups that have contributed significant sums to the project. A “sponsor the bone” effort will also enable visitors to chip in to help cover ongoing maintenance costs associated with the need to periodically recoat the bones to keep the weather at bay.
With so much of the work finally completed, Ballance offered one final thought on what the whale still has to contribute to its new-found terrestrial surroundings. “It still has layers and layers of stories to tell us,” she said. “But I can’t imagine anyone who will leave unmoved and untouched deeply by the sight and experience.”
Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com.
