And our winner is: Jill! Congratulations, and I will be in touch with you by email.

Hoping to get a chance to see the film soon, myself. None of my local theaters are showing it (the perils of living in a rural area) but I’ll find a theater somewhere!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and thanks again for playing.

We all know how charismatic and popular some whales are – especially humpbacks, orcas and just about all dolphins – but grey whales are sort of the second cousin. People know they are there, especially along the west coast of the US where there is a seasonal whale watch industry that’s just as interested in greys as other cetaceans, but how much do people really know in general? A couple of quick facts… There used to be grey whales in the Atlantic but they were hunted to extinction. One of the most critically endangered populations of whales in the world, the Western Pacific greys, are a group numbering around 130. They summer off the the Russian island of Sakhalin, near the northern end of Japan, where oil and gas exploration is strongly impacting their main feeding ground. One whale from that population has proven to be quite a traveler, having been tracked across the Bering Sea and down towards the coast of Oregon. Then there’s the grey whale that mysteriously turned up in the Mediterranean a couple of years ago.

For myself, doing a grey whale excursion off Baja is high on my bucket list. How many places can you go where it is ok, even encouraged, to give whales a great big kiss (just be careful of the cyamids on their skin. What’s a cyamid, you ask? Read further down…) I know people who have had this experience and every one of them loved it. The irony of this encounter is that it takes place in the same lagoons which used to be the scene of great slaughter of grey whales. I think it’s quite remarkable, both the turn around of our treatment of whales in that area, and their response to us given how many died in those lagoons, possibly within the memory of whales still encountered there.

So, I’m kind of excited to see another great whale species get some big screen treatment. Yes, it’s a dramatization. You know going in that it will have a happy ending even if you don’t know the story behind the film, because that’s the vibe that the commercials give. The website for the film has some cool facts about whales, including an interactive graphic which gives you a sense for the size of an average adult.

I am delighted to also be offering a give-away in honor of this film alongside this post. Remember above when I mentioned cyamids? Leave me a comment with their common name, and you’ll be entered into the drawing. Comments left up until Friday, February 3 at 9 PM Eastern are eligible, and you must live in the US. I’ll pick a winner from those comments. Your prize will be a $25 gift card to Fandango, a whale plush, and a Big Miracle t-shirt (total package value: $55.). Good luck and have fun! I’ll see you at the movies!

Important to note: no actual grey whales were used in the creation of the movie. The whales seen are animatronic, or archival footage from the actual rescue were used. More details and a trailer for the movie below. Giveaways and film details are courtesy Big Honcho Media and Universal Pictures – thanks, folks!

Rating:                                    PG

Cast:                                       Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Kristen Bell, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson, Ted Danson

And sharks are facing incredible peril in the oceans right now. The link above talks about how a handful of people are killed by sharks in an average year. Conversely, humans and human activity take the lives of over 70 MILLION sharks each year.

The primary cause is the deplorable act of shark finning, where live sharks are pulled aboard a boat, their fins are cut off, and their still living bodies are dumped back in the ocean where they are sentenced to die either by predators or drowning. Without their fins they cannot swim, and because they cannot swim, their gills are unable to extract oxygen from the water. This is about as undignified a death as any animal could suffer. And for what are their fins used? Soup. Time Magazine had an article called Extinction in a Bowl of Shark Fin Soup which talks about the high price to the consumer (at least $100 per bowl) and ultimately to all of us as sharks are killed and ocean ecosystems worldwide are critically altered as a result.

Sharks have been on my radar a little more than usual lately because of a story with a now infamous photo of Rosie O’Donnell and her kids with a very large, very dead hammerhead shark, with the humans all looking excitedly pleased as punch about their great kill. The crap hit the fan and the twitterverse became very active with criticism and attempts to raise awareness with Rosie about this. The story has even hit the Huffington Post. I had a few exchanges with her, myself, on Twitter. She defends it by saying her family fishes (which is not the problem) and that you can’t control what you catch. To a degree, that’s true, but not always entirely accurate. Just Google ‘shark fishing’ to find all sorts of companies and charters and tours that tout the landing of “monster” sharks (there’s that image problem again). Those would not be successful businesses if they did not how to specifically target sharks in their fishing. And given that one of Rosie’s good friends and fishing buddies is called Mark the Shark (visitor beware: many glorified and gory photos of large, dead sharks), who makes a business of catching sharks, it’s not all as random as she’d have us all think. She’s also been arguing that the species was not, on that day, listed as endangered. Since those listings don’t happen in real time but only after serious population decline and sometimes much political squabbling has occurred, a matter of days is no marker at all of the health of the species before and after listing. Those sharks were already deeply in trouble by the time they were listed. Endangered populations are not always a given to be listed as such. Just look at the plight of the bluefin tuna. Already virtually commercially extinct, because it is so strongly desired in Japan (where a recent bluefin sold for $736,000 – for just ONE fish!), financial interests are overriding environmental interest. It’s a good thing that sharks are being added to the list, and we just have to hope it is not too late.

She has also defended it by talking about how much of a positive impact the ocean has on her son, Blake. He has auditory processing disorder, and the ocean helps him to come alive, according to his justifiably proud mom. I think it’s fabulous that they have been able to find something which works like that for him. But does it need to come at the expense of sharks?

This was not something I had planned to blog about ever, really, since I am primarily about whales. And then Rosie asked on Twitter – enough with the sharks, can we move on?

Sorry, no, not in the larger scheme of things. Directly, I think I’ve said what I can to her, always trying to be respectful even when blunt, but her mind is apparently made up, and belaboring the issue if she is not willing to listen will not get anyone anywhere. But for every shark that is killed and pulled from the ocean, including the Great Hammerhead with which she has been pictured, it’s a big loss to the ocean. Rosie talks often about how much she loves the ocean; she and her family live on the coast and are on the water as much as they can be. She is a self-professed conservationist. To me, a conservationist cannot also take such delight in killing one of the most important animals in the oceans she loves. She has astutely asked about fishing companies which take massive numbers of sharks from ocean, compared to her small number. And she is right, we need to do more to stop large scale slaughter of sharks, around the globe. And efforts are under way to do just that. Meanwhile, she is a public figure with a high profile, and she could do a lot for increasing understanding and awareness of sharks. At the same time, her argument is a bit of a red herring (forgive the pun). Yes, millions are taken commercially. But rather than that fact’s overshadowing single catch and sport fishing, it makes each shark that is NOT killed all the more valuable. Every single shark counts. In 2006, a world record was set with the capture of a Great Hammerhead shark off of Florida, in a shark fishing competition. She weighed 1,280 pounds, AND she set another record. She was just about to give birth to 55 pups, the largest number ever found in a hammerhead shark. That’s 56 sharks that were removed from the ocean in one swoop. Sharks mature slowly and reproduce slowly. A loss like this has devastating impact on the populations. We can only guess at how many sharks are lost on a commercial fishing scale.

Instead, Rosie opts to brush it all off.

I have a lot of respect for Rosie as she has been a powerful figure in many ways, including on LGBT awareness which is another key issue for me. That she seems to think this is no big deal is disappointing. Hopefully, she will continue to learn, and her kids will grow to understand that killing sharks is wrong. With her son and family’s love for the ocean and hopefully growing awareness, I hope they become part of the next generation which understands this issue even better than we do now and works to change the fate of sharks before it is too late. We can love them and appreciate them without glorying in killing them, whether in single or massive numbers. If she visibly promoted catch and release only, that would be fantastic. It would be a really easy way for her to really show that she does, in fact, get it.

All images used in this post are free images found at freestockphotos.biz.

In mid-November, I had the good fortune of taking a short cruise with one of my favorite bands, Eddie From Ohio. We were, the lot of us, a little pocket of people on Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas and we had the best of both worlds. We got private concerts from a terrific folk rock band, and also got to utilize all that the ship had to offer. This included excursions for our one day at port, in Cozumel. I had spent some time looking at the excursion possibilities before going on the trip. While there were many intriguing choices, the one that kept simmering in the back of my mind was the Sea Turtle Snorkel. Still, I didn’t want to make any decisions until on board the cruise ship, to see what other Edheads might be doing. In the end, the opportunity to do something I would not be able to do here at home won out and I booked the excursion very early during the cruise.

The whole excursion was something of an adventure: we were off the cruise ship by 8 AM, onto a ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen on the mainland. This led to about 30-40 minutes of a very rough ride (luckily, I don’t get sea sick). From there, our tour guide/naturalist, Jorge of Wild Tours, led us to a bus for another 30 minute ride to our destination, Akumal (Mayan for Place of the Turtles). Along the way, he pointed out a large eagle’s nest atop a roadside electrical tower. Alas, the birds did not appear to be in residence at that moment.

At the end of our drive, our van turned down a narrow, tree lined road. Its condition was so rough that, while paved, we moved at about 3 miles per hour and very carefully over potholes, hugging the tree line. After a brief stop at a guard post, we drove into the parking lot of a facility that appeared both well maintained and completely deserted. Where *were* we? The grounds were gorgeous, full of lush green trees and plants, and the building we entered was in very nice shape though not another soul could be seen. We stopped in a room full of tables and chairs, but no lockers. Jorge assured us that all of our stuff was safe and we could leave it there (he was right). He handed out our snorkels, masks, and flippers, told us how to adjust the straps to put everything on, and then showed us the hand signals he would use in the water to indicate when a turtle had been spotted. I was the only one in our small group of 5 (including a couple from Ft. Lauderdale and a couple from Wales) who had never really been snorkeling before.

Time to hit the water! We left our empty building, and wow! We emerged onto a long, beautiful white sand beach, complete with lounge chairs, a small snorkel shop/hut, and people all over the place. Given how deserted the building seemed to be, I was not expecting this at all. It was like we had stepped right into the pages of one of those vacation brochures that shows the impeccable beaches, impossibly blue skies and warm, turquoise waters.

Jorge had explained to us that this is one of the few places in the world where sea turtles can be found all year. Protected by a barrier reef, turtles come into Akumal just about every day to eat sea grasses and jelly fish in the shallow bay. After donning our gear, we backed up into the water and away we went. It took me a few minutes to get past over-focusing on breathing through my mouth, and then having to swap masks with Jorge since I could not see anything (thanks again, Jorge!) and hey! Turtles! I was amazed at how quickly we started to find them, and how relatively close to the beach we always were. We spent about 45 minutes in the water, and all told saw probably 8-10 turtles, mostly adult females and also one younger turtle (smaller than the rest). Several turtles had remora fish on or under their shells also. One turtle wasn’t so keen on all of us water tourists so swam away, but the rest were pretty comfortable just ignoring us and going about their business. My most exciting moment came when one of the turtles came up for air and literally came within inches of touching me as she passed by. It doesn’t really work to try to back pedal with swimming fins, but I tried my best to stay out of her way, not thinking just to be still and give her enough credit for knowing full well how to avoid me. I was definitely caught up in the moment. Several times, Jorge went deeper into the water and waggled his fingers in front of some turtles and one southern stingray that we saw because that will sometimes prompt them to move around a little. They pretty much ignored him completely (and he was very careful never to make contact with them or harass them. If they didn’t react, he let them be.)

Jorge then led us over to a small reef area, and tried to find a barracuda for us. No luck there, but I loved feeling like I was swimming through a National Geographic program, watching various fish in a wide array of colors swimming around. The water in the bay is relatively shallow, and the one anxious moment here was passing rather closely over a taller section of reef. I stopped kicking and just did a breaststroke to move past that point. The largest fish we saw was a puffer fish (un-puffed).

Too quickly, our time in the water was through. The couple from Ft. Lauderdale had their own gear so went back in the water for a while which made me a little envious. I should have checked the gear shack right on the beach, but I was feeling like I had been spendy enough for the day so wandered around instead. I was glad I had decided not only to splurge on the excursion but also to pay onboard ship premium prices for disposable waterproof cameras (it wasn’t enough that I was a gawky American tourist in Mexico, but I also had to be a gawky American tourist in the water, with two of those things dangling from my wrists). Wish I had listened to my friend, Susan, with whom I had dinner the night before the cruise in Ft. Lauderdale, when she offered to take me to Walgreen’s to get a couple of cameras. While the photos I got with them were far below Brian Skerry or Flip Nicklin caliber (get their new books, Ocean Soul and Among Giants, respectively. Seriously – AMAZING), I am glad I had something with me. Naturally, I am eager now to recreate the experience but with a better camera. Where’s that winning lottery ticket??

After a couple of hours relaxing on the beach, and lunch at a burger shack nearby, we climbed back into the van to head back to Playa del Carmen. Coming from New England where late fall was deeply in place and our world was increasingly brown and dreary, it was nice to see all of the lush vegetation, and also sobering to see the wide range of quality of living quarters we passed on the road. Poverty was easily evident, and I was reminded of just how very fortunate I was to have this experience at all. We also were able to catch a glimpse of activity in the eagle’s nest on the return trip. After getting drenched in rain in the short walk from the covered dock to the ferry, it was nice to sit and reflect on the day. Being a big music fan, having the right tunes with which to think helps a lot. I listened to Carrie Newcomer‘s “Everything is Everywhere” on that ferry ride, and it was the perfect soundtrack for my thoughts. We were dropped off “downtown” (as opposed to the ship’s pier from where we started). I made the valiant effort to walk back to the ship and got maybe 75% of the way back before my feet gave out and I finally hailed a cab (I had been walking for over an hour at that point). Along the way, I saw a crab on a waterside bench, probably washed there by waves crashing up against the sea wall. Tried to figure out a way to flick it back into the water, but it was having none of that, skittering away on the bench any time I got close. It was a little comical, really.

According to Jorge, we saw mostly loggerhead turtles, but possibly also one green turtle. I tried to see if I could glean the distinctions from my photos but I am just not accustomed to photo IDs of turtles at this point, especially from fair quality photos taken with disposable cameras. We also saw a southern sting ray and a skate I can’t quite identify. I am grateful to Jorge for being a funny, well informed and terrific guide/naturalist, my fellow snorkelers for good company, and the turtles themselves, for being so naturally awesome.

You can learn more about efforts to protect the bay and its marine visitors by visiting the website for Centro Ecológical Akumal (site is in English).

And feel free to check out the photos I did get, keeping in mind the ‘equipment’ I was using. Might not have been high end, but it was better than nothing!

Over the course of the whole cruise weekend, I saw pelicans, fish, crabs, a reef and turtles. This has lead to a strong desire to watch “Finding Nemo” again.

Duuuuuuuuuude. Turtles rock.

There are three things that are bringing attention to these matters to the fore: the death of the SeaWorld trainer, Dawn Brancheau, the recent Small Group meeting of the International Whaling Commission to discuss a fundamental shift in whaling (basically going from “banned” to permitted commercial whaling), and the Oscar win for Best Documentary to The Cove (congrats to all involved in that film!).

What can we do, those of us who are not working for marine organizations or right on the front lines?

At the moment, the most urgent thing we can do is to contact our government representatives. There is a serious effort being made to create a plan that allows for some commercial whaling towards the goal of ending all commercial whaling. The US is one of the countries working on this – it is critically important to increase public pressure to say that this is NOT acceptable. Killing whales on a commercial level needs to end, period.  This proposed compromise simply rewards Japan, Norway and Iceland – who have been flouting the ban on whaling for decades and even increased their kill numbers – by given them legitimacy without an enforceable way to ensure that the killing DOES end. Meanwhile, thousands more whales will suffer inhumane deaths. President Obama has promised not to allow whaling – contact the White House and make sure he does not become the president who DID move towards killing whales.

In the case of The Cove, which works to expose the slaughter of thousands of dolphins in Japan, you can send the text DOLPHIN to 44144. Be aware that this will place you on a text alerts list (from which you can easily opt out) and will be subject whatever text charges you have on your cell plan.

Stay up on the news. If you’re on Twitter, there are loads of marine, whale and conservation groups you can follow which post stories and developments. For ideas of some, check my follow lists for oceans, whales, and green/nature. You do not have to be on Twitter to see what people are saying, and you can often find websites for organizations by clicking on their @ nicknames to reach their individual pages.

Greenpeace is another organization that posts current news and offers e-petitions that can be signed and shared. These e-petitions do NOT replace direct individual contact from us to our representatives. Individual letters still hold more weight.

I keep a list here on the blog of whale research and conservation orgs. Again, it is not comprehensive but is a good start. Go to their sites, read up on their work, and support them however you can.

In the end, there are  countless matters of concern for ocean conservation: ending shark finning, establishing marine parks, ending destructive fishing methods like bottom trawling and long lining, cleaning up pollution. There are countless organizations involved in many of these causes. Use the web – find out who is working on the issues that matter to you most, and get involved. All it takes is one voice to get the ball started.

I’ve been following a lot of the stories and commentary about this latest incident of a captive orca’s killing a human trainer. Not surprisingly, that leads to having thoughts of my own.

I used to have a strong aversion to orcas, or killer whales. When I was 9 years old, I went to see a movie called Orca, a thriller. My one enduring image from the film is of a large orca surging up onto a beach, trying to grab some human(s) there. We left the movie before it was over because it was so terrifying to us. I have also once been to SeaWorld in Florida, around the same time, and seen a killer whale show, though I don’t honestly remember much about it. I knew just about nothing about the reality of orcas.

Then, as an adult with a growing interest in and passion for whales, I finally picked up a book (that I had passed over multiple time before) called “Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us” by Alexandra Morton. This is a highly engaging and accessible book which demystified orcas for me and made them much more intriguing animals. They were no longer in my head as mindless, vicious killers, but as intelligent, complicated animals. Part of the book talks about how she started by working in marine parks and then moved to study orcas in the wild as she became increasingly uncomfortable with the idea and practice of orcas in captivity.

I find that one of the things bothering me most about the coverage of this latest killer-whale-kills-human story is that almost universally it is called a killer whale, not an orca. While  I know that killer whale is a legitimate and commonly used name for this species, I feel like it is also deliberately ramping up the monster image of this particular whale, Tilikum. That he has a history of killing another trainer and having been found with another deceased human just adds to that portrayal. BUT, in the wild, there are no documented cases of a killer whale’s killing a human. There are rare stories of attacks, usually attributed to a whale’s presumed perception of a human as prey. The name “killer whale” seems to come from a mistranslation of Spanish fisherman who dubbed these whales as “whale killers” because they witnessed orcas pursuing and killing other whales.

It is a good thing that this is sparking a lot of discussion about captive large marine mammals and shows, though it is a result of an unquestionably tragic event. Captive whale shows are undoubtedly big money for marine parks. But are they really educational? What do we learn about a whale’s life in the open oceans by watching them perform tricks? It’s a pretty safe bet that wild orcas (or sea lions or dolphins etc etc) are not bouncing balls off their noses or leaping through hoops out in the wild. I am sure that some facts about orcas are conveyed through the show’s narration, but do any of them make the sort of impact which will lead to greater awareness and efforts towards conservation? (Really, if someone could tell me, I would like to know.)

Animal expert Jack Hanna chimed in today, with unwavering support for both the whale and SeaWorld. I am glad he points out that this is not the whale’s fault (what we as humans attribute to the human condition of fault, that is), but I am struck at how he names SeaWorld the world experts on killer whales. I am sure their body of knowledge is immense, and it does seem that they partner with scientists from around the world. Their site is unclear (on quick review) as to what scientists they have on staff who are out in the field. I hope they do have some because there is no way to fully understand a wide-roaming animal that is stuck in a cement tank. I am going to keep digging because I would like to know more about their work and programs overall.

I think Hanna’s saddest statement is:

“Let’s say 20, 30 years from now, there’s 200 killer whales left in the wild. Let me tell you where we’re going to go: We’re going to go to SeaWorld and see what to [do] to save this magnificent creature. That’s how valuable it is for what we’re doing with research.”

Not a single word is in this interview about conservation, or about how human activity has threatened all of the populations of all whales around the world, making this sort of captive breeding/preservation necessary in the first place.

He also said:

“Some people said they know what the whale [is] thinking. That’s impossible. I don’t know what the whale is thinking I don’t know what stress is to a whale. All I know is that SeaWorld provides the best possible care, and I’ve in been going to those parks for 30-something years. And I always seen nothing but animals that seem to be very, very happy.”

Which is it, Jack? How can it be impossible for people to know what the whale is thinking, and yet you then assert that the animals seem happy.  That strikes me as a dramatic contradiction. If you do not know what stresses the animals, can you really know if they are happy? (Maybe they are, I don’t claim to know one way or another. I’m just reacting to the mixed bag of anthropomorphism that this story is generating.)

I am glad that this whale will not be euthanized as he was acting out of instinct and not likely out of any malice, but have we also condemned him and his fellow killer whales to a life of torture caused by confinement, all for the sake of research?  I don’t know what the best answer is – there are no magically large water parks that simulate the ocean environment. There are no easy answers, period.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have done a “swim with dolphins” thing, when I was on a cruise that stopped in Cozumel. These dolphins were captive in a pen fenced off the beach, not in a cement tank, but yes, still captive. I admit that I could not resist the opportunity. I do realize now the very very mixed good/bad about doing this sort of activity. I also fully acknowledge the powerful draw of these charismatic animals which is hard to resist. Does make one wonder if dolphins think about swimming with us… (No, I don’t for one second think that they do, but it would be an interesting thing to discover, what they think of us wacky humans.)

Meanwhile, I shift into more of a mode of watching for stories and reflecting upon them. Which brings me to the dead whales of the post’s title. There’s an interesting story from the UK about a biologist’s experience with trying to learn from the body of a dead whale. As he says, “everybody should watch a whale being dissected – it teaches us about life“. Does make me glad that I made the effort to watch some of the dissection of a fin whale back in May. Gruesome business though it is, seeing these animals so closely adds a whole new dimension to their reality, and reaches people who might suddenly see the beauty of these animals and want to do more to try to save them.

What can we do? Well, a lot, but here’s a start:

If you smoke, dispose of your butts in a container. Stamping them on the ground just means they will get washed into some waterway and it has been shown that the filters contain plastics that make water toxic to fish. And the butts are eaten by fish, turtles and other marine life, which also kills them. Butts are trash. They shouldn’t just be tossed around and beaches are not giant ashtrays.

If you like seafood, make sure you are choosing something that is sustainable. Aquariums like the Monterey Bay Aquarium keep a close eye on this issue. Here’s a list of “good” fish to eat in a relative list. Overfishing is a massively important issue, and really greatly ignored. Some people are starting to make a stand, including against high end restaurants serving highly endangered bluefin tuna. Don’t eat at restaurants that serve shark fin soup. Sharks are disappearing at alarming rates because of being finned for a soup, where the fins add no taste and it’s simply “fashionable” to eat. Now, sharks are disappearing so fast that manta rays are being caught in increasing numbers for the soup. Human greed and consumption is vastly outpacing the oceans.

Go on a whale watch. See the ocean at work with your own eyes. What people know about, they tend to better protect. Not near the ocean? There are a bunch of great IMAX films available on DVD which is like being right there. I rather like Deep Sea 3D, myself, and am looking forward to one day getting “Dolphins and Whales 3D” on DVD.

I am still learning about the oceans and the myriad wonders, mysteries and problems. A lot of people out there have posted hints as well, so Google it and see what you can do. We must all make the effort, or there will be no more fish, no more whales, no more coral reefs, etc etc. As the oceans go, so will go our entire planet. Just because we can’t see the bottom of the ocean from the surface, doesn’t mean there is no bottom. And as Lucy Lawless said in a PSA, “there is no Planet B”. (Yes the PSA is primarily about climate change, but the oceans’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide is key to our climate.) Taking care of the oceans means taking care of us and all of this planet’s residents.

It’s a gruesome thing, but I’d never seen a necropsy, so once we came back to shore, I hopped in the car to go over. Much of the whale had already been removed by this time. It seemed still “whole” at around 10 when our whale watch boat passed by, but when I arrived at 2, it was apparent that no time was being wasted. This was, after all, a holiday weekend, and having a dead whale on a popular beach was not a good scenario.

I had heard/read about some necropsies and that dead whales have a pretty intense and awful smell. Those stories were not kidding. I watched for about 45 minutes before I had had enough. It makes me having enormous respect for the folks who were out there and literally IN the whale for the duration of the day. It is clearly not a pleasant, easy, or fast process, and I can only imagine how those folks managed. From what I could see, folks working on the whale were from Cape Cod Stranding Network (part of IFAW), and WHOI. It’s entirely possible that other organizations were there too, but I couldn’t tell.

No one seemed to be saying much, if they knew yet, about how this whale might have died. Ship strikes are a pretty common killer so I have to wonder if it may have been that. Since the whale had clearly been dead for a while before scientists were able to get to it, the decomposition may have been too advanced to get “good” tissue samples. This is purely conjecture on my part so I have no idea for sure. The only thing I did know was from a woman who was working to extract the ear bone from the head. (She studies hearing in whales, and the impact of human noise. I wish circumstances were more amenable to talking to her more about that topic as I find it very intriguing.) I asked her if, as in humpbacks, the fin whales develop wax rings in their ears which help to ascertain age. She replied that they probably wouldn’t be able to tell since “the whale was pretty well cooked.”

Onlookers were actually able to get fairly close to the process, so I took some photos with my point and shoot camera. That being digital, I can offer photos now. I don’t think I am going to link them from the main gallery since the photos are pretty gruesome to view. But I do offer them here. Just please, be aware of what’s in here because it’s graphic stuff. View the fin whale necropsy photos – viewer be warned!