Raising Big Blue
In 1987, a 26 meter long mature female blue whale died on the beach which was on the
faraway northwestern coast of Prince Edward Island. The PEI government has preserved the
skeleton of the blue whale. They have dragged it off the beach and buried it near Nail Pond. Dr.
Andrew Trites and his work team have come together to make this project which was making the
whale skeleton being one permanent display at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. The project was
a challenge mission involving three main steps: recovering, cleaning and restructuring.
First of all, recovering and investigating the condition of the blue whale bones is an
important step because they just had 18 month to accomplish all work for the exhibiting. In
December 2007, Dr. Andrew Trites has led a team of four to PEI to explore the condition of the
bones if recovery was possible. Two days late, they found the whale’s carcass, and then found the
diggers to make sure the bones being completed and having perfect shape. In May 2008, the UBC
researchers and the affiliates dug and exposed the carcass and took away the blue whale’s skin,
flesh and blubber. When a part of flipper was loosening, Dr. Andrew Trites was anxious. Finally
he found the flipper bones from a local fish man have done the first step of the project.
Secondly, clearing and degreasing is a challenge because the oil would require to be
removed completely before the skeleton put on the public exhibition. In July 2008, Mike deRoos,
a Master Articulator, with an expanded team have collected all of bones and moved them to
Victoria’s inner harbor. They used high power pressure water to clear the bones surface and put
them into the huge tanks with an enzyme bath. During the several months, the bones were
immersed in a type of bacteria to digest major of the oil, but there were still having some oil in the
bones. When the other UBC professors helped them increased temperature of the enzyme bath, the
oil was not degreased completely. If they could not fully remove the whole oil from the skeleton,
the bones would gradually release stink in the museum, so they decided to take a risky which is
using a degreasing machine from Chicago. Finally, they have resolved the significant problem and
had been successful for degreasing.
Thirdly, restructuring and articulating should put all of the pieces together, so it was an
interested step because it was a huge puzzle. When the bones finished enzyme bath, they were
repaired and casted. During the January to April 2010, Mike deRoos arranged the all bones how
to get together and the project team completed the articulation. When the missive skeleton was
safely taken BC Ferry and arrived at UBC, the team began restructuring which was building the
skull, two jawbones, two flippers and the other over 180 bones together. The talented crew of
articulators joined Mike’s team to complete the finishing the blue whale skeleton.
In the end, the blue whale skeleton was displayed at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in
May 2010. Blue whales are the hugest animals ever to have lived on our earth. The exhibition is
very valuable because there are only 21 of the blue whale skeleton available to the public for
display worldwide. Through 18 months toughly struggling, Dr. Andrew, Mike and their team have
accomplished the challenge project: recovering, cleaning and restructuring.