Whale Bones
A humpback whale carcass is discovered on a quiet beach in British Columbia. Where did this whale come from? How did the animal die? And what will happen to the humpback next?
A humpback whale carcass is discovered on a quiet beach in British Columbia. Where did this whale come from? How did the animal die? And what will happen to the humpback next? This is the story of that whale, which will take us deep into the hidden lives of humpbacks and involve dozens of people untangling the threads of a mystery as they ready the humpback’s bones for a new purpose.
Produced and Edited by Meigan Henry
Videography by Kristina Blanchflower, Grant Callegari, and Bennett Whitnell
Special thanks to Mike deRoos, Michiru Main, Katie Ford, Jackie Hildering/Marine Education & Research Society (MERS), Paul Cottrell/DFO, and Stephen Raverty/DFO
If you want to dive deeper into Whale Bones, below are media and education kits to go with the videos:
A Whale Washes Up
On a quiet stretch of beach in the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, a 7.6-meter-long humpback whale washes up on shore. Soon after the whale is discovered by a hiker, experts rush to the island for a necropsy—to understand how the whale died and find out more about his life. As the story unfolds, we delve into what makes a humpback whale unique and what happens when a whale dies and falls to the seafloor.
Teacher cheat sheet of what’s included in this episode of Whale Bones:
– Humpback whales: 101 facts, biology, feeding, observable features, beaching
– What is a necropsy, what do we learn from a necropsy
– British Columbia’s Marine Mammal Response Program
– Whale falls
Cleaning a Carcass
With the necropsy complete, world-renowned skeleton articulator, Mike deRoos and his team arrive on Calvert Island, British Columbia. Their goal: to retrieve this young humpback whale’s bones and prepare them for display. As they strip back layers of muscle and blubber, they uncover a clue that reveals what killed the whale. Along the way, we dig into how humpbacks feed and the threats they face as they journey through the gauntlet of today’s human-altered ocean.
Teacher cheat sheet of what’s included in this episode of Whale Bones:
– British Columbia’s nutrient-rich waters, marine food chain
– Humpback whales: feeding strategy, summer and wintering grounds, filter feeding, baleen, bubble net feeding, threats they face (boat strikes, pollution, underwater noise pollution, entanglement)
– Humpback whale skeleton: defleshing a whale carcass, cleaning the whale’s bones
Degreasing a Whale Skeleton
Now that nature has picked the young humpback’s skeleton clean, Mike and his team box up the whale bones and send them to his workshop along the southern British Columbia coast for degreasing—a gargantuan task that requires unusual tools. While Mike preps the bones, we delve into the history of whaling, modern-day attempts to protect whales, and all of the ways scientists learn about the hidden lives of humpbacks.
Teacher cheat sheet of what’s included in this episode of Whale Bones:
– Indigenous whale hunting
– Humpback whales: near extinction, current status, blubber, scientific advancements in studying whales (identifying individuals from flukes, radio telemetry tags, underwater microphones, drones)
– Humpback whale skeleton: degreasing and repairing the bones, the skill sets involved in articulating a whale skeleton (art, science, engineering)
– Commercial whaling: history, impact, especially in British Columbia, global moratorium
– Safeguarding whales: laws, marine protected areas, and sanctuaries
Posing a Whale
Before Mike can begin piecing together the young whale’s skeleton, he needs to choose just the right posture that captures both the science and the spirit of humpbacks underwater. He calls in a digital visualization expert to scan the bones and produce a 3D model that allows him to play with the skeleton in a virtual space. As Mike toils away in his workshop on the south coast of British Columbia, we explore humpback whales’ evolution and their adaptations to a watery world.
Teacher cheat sheet of what’s included in this episode of Whale Bones:
– Reasons why we hang animal skeletons in museums, etc.
– Humpback whales: winter and summer grounds, babies, communication, migration, socializing, predators, physical adaptations to the ocean environment, whale evolution, intelligence
– Humpback whale skeleton: laser scanning the bones, 3D virtual skeleton, what goes into choosing the skeleton’s pose (engineering, art, whale biology), how to tell a story with a skeleton
Hanging a Whale Skeleton
With plans in hand, Mike turns to collaborator Katie Ford to craft a steel framework that will hold the young whale’s skeleton together. Before the humpback bones set out on their journey back north along the British Columbia coast to their final destination, we dive into humpback migration, hitchhiking barnacles, and the mystery behind humpback songs.
Teacher cheat sheet of what’s included in this episode of Whale Bones:
– Humpback whales: migration, winter breeding grounds, birth and babies, summer feeding grounds, humpback whale barnacles, singing
– Humpback whale skeleton: isotope analysis of barnacles, building the steel framework for the skeleton, why build a skeleton display
Hanging a Whale Skeleton
The young humpback arrives at his final resting place on Calvert Island, British Columbia, and Mike and his team get to work artfully rigging hundreds of kilograms of bones and steel high into the rafters. Three and a half years after washing ashore, this whale finally gets to share his story with the world, acting as both a warning call and a reminder of the glorious wonders of nature. In this last episode, we also look into the billion-dollar business of whale watching that has cropped up around these natural wonders, along with the regulations that have been put in place to help protect whales around the world.
Teacher cheat sheet of what’s included in this episode of Whale Bones:
– Humpback whales: migration, whale watching, whale watching regulations and guidelines, complex social interactions, spindle cells
– Humpback whale skeleton: how to hang the skeleton