Seeing Blue Whale Bones Around the World

 https://sites.google.com/view/seeingbluewhalebones 

As the largest mammal in the world, blue whales are a spectacle whenever they are seen, even for just a moment. It is even rarer that these giants die, and rarer yet that the resources, funds, and drive to take on a skeleton preservation project are available when a beaching event occurs. Because of this, well-preserved blue whale skeletons are not common. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History says there are 5 in the US, the New Bedford Whaling Museum says there are only 6 in the world, and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum says there are actually 21 in the world (November 2022). With no consensus, I realized the only way to find out the real number was to research it myself. This project aims to identify and catalogue every blue whale skeleton on display around the world and synthesize the information about them into one engaging, useful site.

This project was a huge undertaking. Although it started in a single evening, getting it to this point took multiple months. The beginning stage was research. I started creating a list of skeletons I had found, the institutions they were at, and their names (if they had one). There were some skeletons that were easy to find, such as Hope at the London Natural History Museum, some I already knew about such as Chad at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and some that were so incredibly obscure it took countless searches and changing of keywords to find them.

At first, the research process was very shapeless. I spent time simply searching "blue whale skeleton" and looking through every result, image, and webpage for ones I hadn't seen before. With this, I complied a fairly extensive list, but I knew it still was not all of them. A problem I encountered quickly was the domination of some of the skeletons in the search results. To get around this, I employed the use of search filters on google and new keywords. I searched by region, country, and with hints from guides on other skeletons I had found. With these strategies, I became much more efficient.

Another issue I encountered was in identifying which skeletons were actually blue whale skeletons. I decided early on I would count any skeleton that was mostly complete, so this ruled out any jaw bone arches (of which there are many) and random whale bones. But because of translations and uncertainties, in some cases I could not be 100% confident if the skeleton I was looking at had actually come from a blue whale. In these cases, I tried to do as much research as possible, but in some I had to use my best judgement. I made note of these cases in the whale histories.

After I had done the research and compiled a list of every blue whale skeleton on display in the world, I planned the shape this final project would take. I knew I wanted to employ GIS, allowing the user to click a point on the map and see a picture of the whale and a summary of its facts and history. When I learned about StoryMaps, I knew it would be perfect for this task.

The next step was writing the histories for each whale. To do this, I went back to the research I had already done, making it easy to write interesting, succinct stories. This was my favorite part of the project. The stories behind the preservation and articulation of many of these skeletons are incredibly interesting, including heists, disappearances, storage crates full of manure, and even people inside of whales.

The final step of the project was inputting the data into GIS. With the spreadsheet I had already created, I was easily able to transpose latitude and longitude data into locations on the map. The points were already populated with the information needed, so I adjusted the settings and labeling to match with what I wanted. With the data inputted, I then created this story map and analyzed my data.

In total, I found 39 blue whale skeletons that are currently on display. There are some skeletons that may soon be displayed (NOYO Center, Canterbury Museum) but are not counted yet.

These skeletons are in 18 countries, India and the US tied for the most both with six skeletons on display. Canada and Ukraine are next with four skeletons each.

Although I am sure there are skeletons I have not found, I believe this is a fairly exhaustive list. It definitely represents more skeletons than past counts have.

I was able to reasonably confirm the total skeleton length of 32 out of 39 whales. The ones without confirmed lengths are those at the Bogor Zoological Museum, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Museo Maritimo del Cantabrico, Samudrika Marine Museum, Grande Galerie de Evolution, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, and the Kherson Museum of Nature.

The longest blue whale skeleton on display in the world is the Ostend Whale at the Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This whale was famous for its size when it toured around Europe in the 19th century.

Now that this project is complete, my next step is to share it with the institutions that display these skeletons and other interested organizations. With this more official statistic, my hope is that these organizations can share an accurate count on their websites and in other materials.

Additionally, I hope this site will generate more interest in blue whale skeletons! It is an amazing experience to get to stand beside one, and with this tool people can more easily find one near them to visit.

To expand on this project, I will continue to research into blue whale skeletons currently being articulated and cleaned, as well as look out for more information on ones I have catalogued. I would also like to add a field to the data about the type of institution or setting the skeletons are in. Analyzing this data could provide interesting, new insights.

Allison Gray is currently a third year student at Northeastern University in Boston seeking a Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies. She grew up in central California and has always loved the ocean, though her love for blue whales has been more recent. Allison is passionate about environmental education and hopes to work at a museum or aquarium as a science educator in the future.

For questions, inquiries, or if you think you've found a new blue whale skeleton, you can email Allison at gray.a@northeastern.edu

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