Having a Whale of a Time at UBC!

Yesterday, en route back to Alaska from the International Marine Conservation Congress in Victoria, I stopped by the University of British Columbia to meet with Dr Andrew Trites and his colleagues in Marine Mammal Research Unit at the Fisheries Centre at UBC. 
Andrew is a member of the ASLC Scientific Advisory Committee and very active in marine mammal research in Alaska and globally.  During our meeting we had the opportunity to view one of his better known projects in Canada - the restoration and public display of a 25m blue whale skeleton that was buried on Prince Edward Island in 1987. 
The blue whale is the centerpiece of the Djavad Mowafaghian Atrium, a two-storey glass gallery in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.   Articulated in the species’ signature lunge-feeding pose, the UBC blue whale is the largest skeleton exhibit in the world suspended without external armature.

Dr Andrew Trites with the blue whale skeleton at UBC

There was a recent article on the first anniversary of the whale exhibit (see

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/city/2011/05/17/one-year-anniversary-blue-whale-specimen-beaty-bidioversity-museum-ubc).  It is also the subject of an upcoming documentary on the complex process undertaken to clean and prepare the skeleton for public display that promises to be a fascinating tale... but there is no subsitute for seeing the amazing power of this exhibit in person!

I

encourage anyone with an interest in marine life to visit the UBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum and see one of the world's more remarkable collections of the diversity and scale of life on earth!