Museum’s Visitors Can Watch "Behind-the-Scenes" Process of Piecing Together 48-Foot-Long Sperm Whale Skeleton in Public Exhibition

As part of the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s celebration of its 100th Anniversary, the Museum will present From the Deep: The Sperm Whale, Bone by Bone, beginning December 5, 2003. This special exhibition will serve as a "public laboratory" where visitors will be able to watch experts preserve, study, and piece together the skeleton of a 48-foot-long sperm whale. When the whale skeleton is complete, it will be placed on permanent exhibition in the Museum’s newly renovated galleries.

The 45-ton whale, which washed ashore in Nantucket in 2002, will be carefully rearticulated bone by bone by a team from the Museum working with faculty, researchers, and students from Roger Williams University’s Department of Biology/Marine Biology. Visitors will be able to talk with team members as they work, ask questions about each stage of the re-assembly process, and learn more about whales from researchers who specialize in understanding these fascinating animals. The exhibition will be open for the duration of the sperm whale preservation and rearticulating process, which is expected to take approximately 18 months.

In addition to showcasing the methods of skeletal articulation and study, From the Deep will explore the biology and conservation of whale species. After the whale is rearticulated, a permanent exhibition will be installed that reveals how and why whales were hunted in the past and explore the historical importance of sperm whales to the New Bedford region and the early American economy.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum invited Roger Williams University to collaborate on the whale project because of the University’s prominent marine sciences division. Roger Williams has designed a special curriculum for the project, and Museum staff will give guest lectures in these courses. Marine biology students will work alongside scientists at the Museum and get hands-on experience in re-assembling and studying a skeleton. Engineering students will study the dynamics of the skeleton and design a new type of exhibition structure that will enable the Museum to display the whale at eye level, giving visitors a unique perspective on the gigantic animal. Elementary education majors at the University will build an integrated unit on whales and maritime culture that will be developed into instructional materials for elementary and secondary curriculums.

Whale oil was the petroleum of the 19th century and sperm whales were particularly prized for their huge yields and the valuable substance called spermaceti, which was found in their enormous heads. The whale oil was used in lamps and the waxy spermaceti was made into candles in the era before electricity. Sperm whales were the driving engine of New Bedford’s prosperity, making the city one of the richest and most diverse of the 19th century. Sperm whales were also iconic in America’s cultural history; Moby Dick, the pure white whale chased by the maniacal Captain Ahab, was a sperm whale.

The sperm whale on view in From the Deep is a male that was found beached and dead on Nantucket’s Great Point in June 2002. The National Marine Fisheries Service awarded the specimen to the New Bedford Whaling Museum because of the institution’s historic ties with the sperm whale and its commitment to placing the whale on public view.

The 90,000-pound whale was towed, first by boat and then by flatbed truck, to New Bedford, where it was flensed of its blubber and work began to remove the oil from its saturated bones. First, the bones were buried in a bed of manure and straw for cleaning. As manure decomposes, the internal temperature of the compost pile can reach up to 160 degrees, killing off possible insect infestations and forcing the bones to release much of their oil. The skeleton, including the 17-foot long skull, was then placed in a secured area where it is currently bleaching in the sun. The bones will be removed in mid-November and transferred to the Museum for further study and articulation.