Piecing blue whale skeleton back together will take some time

ERIC MCCARTHY
Transcontinental Media

as published by The Guardian, May 16, 2008

NORWAY — Not even a coating of Vicks or Tiger Balm in the nostrils will prepare diggers for the stench of a rotting blue whale.

“When the smell gets too bad, you’ll have to get out and go upwind from it for a while,” says skeleton articulator Mike deRoos.

DeRoos is in Norway, near Tignish, helping prepare for the recovery of bones from the skeleton of a blue whale, which has been buried there for nearly 21 years.

Once all the bones have been washed, packaged and shipped to British Columbia, it will be deRoos’ job to piece them back together so the skeleton can be put on display in the atrium of the University of British Columbia’s new Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Research Centre. DeRoos is confident the skeleton will be a great teaching tool for UBC and a great draw to the museum.
He said the university is taking possession just in time, suggesting the whale would be unsalvageable if left in the ground much longer.

There will be broken bones in the carcass, deRoos said. Some would have broken when the whale washed ashore. Moving it to its burial spot would have damaged some bones, too, and the animal’s crushing weight would have caused damage.

“The skeleton is designed to swim in the ocean,” he explained, not to support its weight on land.
DeRoos is part of UBC’s 10-member team that will co-ordinate the recovery of the bones in a project that’s expected to wrap up by next Friday. It will take some time until the bones are put back together and are on display.

“If we’re really lucky, probably a year and a half.”

Before deRoos starts piecing the bones together, he’ll have to soak each individual piece in enzymes to extract the whale grease, and then bleach the bones in sunlight.

Also on site is Mark Halpan, an artist and contractor. It will be his job to repair broken bones and replace missing pieces with Plaster of Paris or hydrastone.