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(L-R) Mike Sauter, Jim Slater and Pete Gibbons from Academy Studios dismantle the blue whale skeleton at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Photo by Victor Maccharoli.

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Blue whale skeleton to get much-needed repairs

By ERIC LINDBERG — March 10, 2010

For nearly three decades, the skeleton of a 72-foot blue whale has weathered the elements in its iconic position at the entrance to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and it shows.

Exposure to direct sunlight and rainfall has caused widespread deterioration of the specimen, with large sheets of its protective coating peeling away from delicate bone.

In the coming months, the skeleton will receive some much-needed love and care during an extensive restoration process to remove old paint, repair cracks and rebuild missing or broken segments.

Workers are currently dismantling the 7,700-pound specimen and will carefully ship all of the bones, save for the skull, to a firm in Novato, Calif. In addition to cleaning and restoring the bones, museum scientists will reposition some sections based on new knowledge about the orientation of blue whale skeletons.

“When we’re done with the process, we can say it’s a much more anatomically correct whale skeleton,” said Paul Collins, the museum’s curator of vertebrae zoology who is overseeing the project.

Since museum experts, including Collins, harvested the skeleton in 1980 after the massive whale stranded about half a mile south of Honda Point on Vandenberg Air Force Base, the bones have undergone only two cleanings.

A recent analysis revealed that the whale’s skull has to be replaced, while the remaining bones must receive thorough repairs. The museum is currently preparing the skull of a 73-foot blue whale that washed ashore in Ventura in 2007 to replace the current skull.

At a facility in Gaviota, workers have already stripped away tissue from the massive skull and are slowly extracting oil from the bones.

“Whale bone in general tends to be very oily,” Collins said.

Scientists believe the oil content provides additional buoyancy to the enormous creature; the current specimen on display would have weighed roughly 136,000 pounds, or 68 tons, when alive.

Once the skull is fully stripped and prepped for preservation, it also will be shipped Academy Studios, the exhibit design and restoration company in Novato.

Collins said the process of restoring and preserving a whale skeleton hasn’t changed much since the 80s. After removing old paint, workers will sand down the bones, apply a hardening solution and fill in any gaps before encasing the skeleton in a protective coating.

“Every single bone is going to have different issues,” Collins said.

Experts will also design a new support structure for the heavy skeleton that should prevent any shifting or settling of the bones that occurred with the current, less-rigid support system.

With more information about how the blue whale is put together, scientists are also making some significant changes to how the skeleton is displayed. Most notably, Collins said the lower mandible will be lowered and placed at a different angle.

“It’s being driven by research done on the foraging process of these great baleen whales,” he said, describing how the jaw opens at a 60- to 70-degree angle to allow the creature to draw in a huge amount of water.

Officials will also adjust a smaller skull bone to enclose the eye socket, in addition to changing the angles of some rib bones.

For now, scientists are focused on dismantling the skeleton and carefully packing it away for its “migration” north. The bones could be on the road as early as Saturday, and should return by September.

At that point, the museum will display the restored skeleton with new lighting, signs and landscaping. Officials also plan to trace the shadow of the whale on the concrete base of the exhibit, including the boneless tail flukes, to give a better sense of its girth.

While there was some discussion of using casts of the bones instead of the actual specimen, Collins said the skeleton itself will go back on display as before.

“I fought for taking it down, repairing it and putting the real bones back up,” he said, adding that only a few replicated bones will be used for sections that are too degraded to be displayed.

The final location of the skeleton may change as the museum works through a major master planning process, but that determination won’t be made for several years. Collins said one possibility is relocating the skeleton to sit alongside the Fleischmann Auditorium, which would offer more protection from the elements.

He also said museum officials plan to do more frequent maintenance of the specimen once the project is complete, with annual or biannual inspections and touchups.

The cost of the restoration project is estimated at $500,000, and the museum has already raised $350,000, including a $100,000 gift from the Dreier Family Foundation. More information about the project is available at www.sbnature.org, while fundraising information is available by calling 682-4711, ext. 109.

Collins said the restoration effort is critical to ensure that the display — one of only five complete blue whale skeletons on exhibit in the United States — continues to offer visitors a first-hand, up-close look at the world’s largest animal.

“We consider this an icon of the museum,” he said.

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: 3/10/2010

My child is older now, but for years in his toddler time and several years beyond, going to the museum meant a straight run to that skeleton and checking it out. It's been great.

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