Blue whale hearts and science · 8:13pm Aug 28th, 2017
I admit this post will not be nearly as interesting and exciting as the ones Pineta is forever producing (Because they are secretly a god among men obviously) But I do hope to amuse and inform a little while massive nerding out. There are pictures I promise!
So several years ago, nine blue whales died in the Gulf of St Lawrence, neat Newfoundland. This is kind of a big deal because they don't often die in those numbers. The population of the group they're studied as is only two to four hundred strong so they lost about 3% of their numbers. That should give you an idea of how serious the deaths were.
The whales died because it was a very cold winter and they got trapped under the ice feeding on krill which is suuuuper small shrimp looking things and those specific ones are very close to the surface of the water so it's risky for the whales.
They spotted the bodies in the ice via a helicopter flyover and also made sure that there were other whales on the move not too far away. It was a tragedy but there was nothing to be done sadly.
Usually when blue whales die for whatever reason, the bodies sink and do the circle of life thing for millions of ocean creatures. Seven of these bodies followed that route but two of them diverted and washed up on the coast of Newfoundland in the towns of Trout River and Rocky Harbour respectively.
This was a cause of consternation for many as a large stinking dead animal is not really what you want on your beach. Thankfully several scientists at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM for short) had asked to be kept in touch with the movement of the corpses, and so were in a perfect spot to take advantage of these incredibly rare finds.
As an example of how rare they are, there are probably less than 20 full blue whale skeletons on display around the world. Part of that is due to how incredibly huge they are and how much space they need to be displayed, but also how hard they are to come by.
So the ROM scientists and the communities, the government and private enterprises all collaborated together so save these bodies so we could learn from them.
And three years after they first washed up, the ROM is now displaying the exhibit for all to see. I was lucky enough to go yesterday with friends and took a handful of photos.
The exhibit was set up that you walked through a room which held video clips and news broadcasts of the discovery and salvage of the whales bodies which were a bit bloody but very intriguing to watch. The walls displayed newspaper clippings and a timeline of the events from the whale's death to the installation in the ROM (The second skeleton is going to the Memorial University of Newfoundland) . It was very intriguing to see and they even included a watch from one of the people who cleaned and prepped the bones and body parts for travel, which years later, still stank and you could smell it. It weirdly didn't smell all that bad, very strong BO if anything.
You then turned a corner and beheld Blue(What a creative name I know, the other one was called Lollipop) in all her boney glory. There were displays on the side to help give you perspective of how large she really was compared to sauropods and elephants but she really is stunning.
Here she is in my limited ability to share.
Her head
Her body
Her tail. Fun fact, the tail we see (The flukes) is actually pure cartilage which is why her skeleton tails off so sharply.
These were the displays on the side, along with the photo showing how small we really are compared to her. Behind me was a scale that told you how many hundreds of you it would take to match her weight.
After you were done being in awe you crossed into the main bulk of the exhibit, which was everything from explaining how whales feed (they shoot into a mob of krill and open their jaws 90 degrees inhaling tons of food and stopping themselves completely before forcing the water out and swallowing their food) and a piece of baleen you could touch which really does look and feel like a giant fingernail.
Then there were Lollipop's jaws, wide open with the only full set of baleen known and on display so you could dress up as a krill and pose in the jaws. Nobody in my group felt willing to do it so here's the jaws without a krill person for perspective.
Then, for me, the real draw of the exihibt. A real blue whale heart. Part of the appeal here is because of how it was preserved. There's an amazing German scientist named Gunther von Hagens who figured out how to do it back in 1977 and it's been used in many different things since then.
The quick and dirty method is that you force out the water in the object and replace it with a mix of silicone and plastics and it suffuses the object, preventing it from decaying or deforming significantly. It doesn't perfectly hold it's shape, but does a very good job of it.
Here's the heart which for perspective is about the size of a golf cart (Not a volkswagon beetle as we had always guessed)
The blue and red is dye that was suffused into the plastics so you can better see things. I love the second photo for the slight cutout so you can see how dense the tissue is. It's also fascinating how different the shape of the heart is. They also have human, mouse, raccoon and killer whale hearts to show the different sizes and (in the case of the killer whale) shapes.
There was also a moose heart that you could gently poke to feel how solid the plastination leaves the objects. It's a bit like poking something with a rubbery coating. There's a tiny bit of give, but mostly it resists your push.
The exhibit wrapped up with a walkthrough of what whales evolved from. Since they started as land mammals and returned to the ocean. Their ancestors were surprising to see as they look nothing like whales as we think of them. They showed half a dozen evolving species and showed each of the changes and it was really intriguing to see an animal that starts out looking like a doggy tasmanian devil to something that becomes completely aquatic and resembles an alligator crossed with a seal.
It was an incredible sight and I believe the heart is going travelling stateside. If you have a chance, I can't recommend you see it enough. It's a truly awe-inspiring thing that was absolutely worth the several years.
I've seen a fascinating exhibit of dozens of plasticized human cadavers at the Franklin Institute, including one of parents and child where it was only their circulatory systems. You could actually make out some organs because of the density of blood vessels within them.
I'll have to keep an eye out for Blue Whale Heart 2017.
4650962 Bodyworks?
4650966
That's the one. Fascinating exhibit. This one sounds just as cool, if not more so. If a bit smellier.
4650979 I've yet to see bodyworks, but I've heard great things about it. Very envious of you. and this was only slightly smellier xD
Holy crap. Gotta feel bad for the whales, but that's great they were able to make something like this out of it.
4650985
Bodyworks is totally worth seeing at least once, possibly multiple times since they switch around the exhibits. It's been a while since I've gone but they should still be touring around Canada somewhere.
4651034 Sadly, no where near me is planned, but I'm keeping an eye out.
What an amazing exhibition. Thank you for sharing the story (and thanks for your kind mention). I can only imagine what it's like standing next to a whale heart, trying to picture what it's like when beating.
That is absolutely incredible.
So Mr John Wood has bought it for two hundred and twenty-six pound,
And has brought it to Dundee all safe and all sound;
Which measures 40 feet in length from the snout to the tail,
So I advise the people far and near to see it without fail.
Then hurrah! for the mighty monster whale,
Which has got 17 feet 4 inches from tip to tip of a tail!
Which can be seen for a sixpence or a shilling,
That is to say, if the people all are willing.
---William Topaz McGonagall, "The Famous Tay Whale"
Cooool. Thanks for the pics!