The death of nine blue whales, off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada, sparked international headlines in 2014. Can you tell us what happened that month in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and how this connects to your institution the Royal Ontario Museum and your programme of travelling exhibitions?
Whale ice entrapments happen every year in the region, but in 2014, denser pack ice caused a sort of bottleneck in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and tragically, nine blue whales were trapped in the shifting ice patches. Two of them washed up on the shores in eastern Canada, in the province of Newfoundland, one in Rocky Harbour, the other in Trout River.
Blue whales are so rare that scientists believe there are fewer than 250 mature adults in the Northwest Atlantic. The extensive loss to the Blue Whale Atlantic population from the St. Lawrence event resonated globally. It was tragic. However, as the carcasses started to decompose and bloat from methane gas, the ROM team recognised there was a unique opportunity to explore the world’s largest and one of the most mysterious animals. We contacted the local towns to offer support for the clean-up and recovery for the two stranded blues. We felt this could provide a legacy of ongoing education about blues and the efforts needed for conservation.
The community spirit and effort by locals and the ROM team was tracked closely by media outlets in the region and around the globe, and cheered on by many who were invested in the outcome.
Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story, our new travelling exhibition, retells the story of these blue whales and the unprecedented opportunity for research and conservation that resulted from this unfortunate event.
Many people were involved in the behind-the-scenes of the whale conservation and recovery efforts. What was concretely carried out for this special conservation project?
A crew of twelve people, including ROM staff, contractors from Research Casting International, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and local hires, dove into action to carve the bones out of the whale carcass. This was no ordinary situation. Customised tools were fabricated using research from historical whale hunting practices to aid in the process. To move a whale that measured 23.31 metres and weighed between 100 and 150 tons required heavy equipment in an area not easily accessible. It took six days of almost around the clock dirty work to clean down to the bones as part of the first step of preserving the skeletons.
A unique team of content experts provided their input for the development of the exhibition content, integrating the conservation project into the narrative. The ROM project members were Mark Engstrom – Curator Emeritus, Mammals, Burton Lim – Assistant Curator of Mammals, Jacqueline Miller – Collections Technician Division of Mammals, Oliver Haddrath – Collections Technician, Dave Ireland former Managing Director Of Biodiversity and Gerardo De Iuliis – Lecturer, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Toronto.
We recovered a compelling specimen and a one-of-kind blue whale heart. These provided the foundations for a strong story.
3 years after the recovery of the two whales, the ROM launched Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story, the major exhibition dedicated to blue whales and this recovery experience, which is now on tour. How did the conservation effort turn into an exhibition project?
We recovered a compelling specimen and a one-of-kind blue whale heart. These provided the foundations for a strong story. We decided to create an exhibition that would tell the story of these magnificent animals and deliver a clear climate and conservation message: we all share this planet, and human activity is impacting the vulnerable species on Earth.
As it is so hard to get a sense of the size and weight of blues, we made the skeleton the central feature in the gallery space, as standing beside a full-length blue whale skeleton is a powerful experience. Visitors are immediately enthralled with the size of the whale and are compelled to learn more about this incredible animal.
How do you tell the story of blue whales and engage visitors in the journey you have created around these monumental specimens?
Next to the core specimen experience a projection shows a blue whale swimming, and there is a scale interactive, where visitors can stand to understand how many of them it would take to make up a blue whale, to fully understand the massive size of this creature.
We created a “License to Krill” interactive which challenges visitors to feed like a blue whale by diving, surfacing to breathe, and feeding on krill pods. In their role of playing a blue whale, visitors also need to evade ships, nets, and other ocean obstacles. Elsewhere in the exhibition, visitors discover through interactives and didactic exploration how blue whales have evolved, the size of their heart, how they communicate, and more of the mind-blowing biology of Earth’s largest animal. They gain insight into the decline of the species, what can be done to protect them, and how ROM is unlocking some of the secrets of these elusive creatures.
You mentioned a large whale heart. Could you tell us how you integrated this organ in the exhibition?
The blue whale heart recovered by the team was sent to Gunther von Hagens, a German anatomist who invented the plastination preservation technique (as obviously the real heart could not be displayed). The plastination process is a lengthy one – it really can’t be rushed – and so when ROM opened its exhibition, the plastinated heart was still being worked on. The team reached out to a Smart Car manufacturer, as the blue whale heart and this car are similar in size. We wrapped a car in decals to mimic a blue whale heart for comparison to other mammal hearts (human plus other animals) to give visitors a better sense of scale. We also provided a commonly used item, a large recycling bin, to show the volume of blood pumped through a blue whale heart. A replica of the plastinated heart, which is now ready, is travelling with the exhibition.
We wrapped a car in decals to mimic a blue whale heart for comparison to other mammal hearts to give visitors a better sense of scale.
Did the research carried out on the specimens lead to some new discoveries about this species? Are new facts revealed through the exhibition?
Typically when a whale dies, it sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor. The mortality event allowed ROM scientists to collect DNA from the blue whale, and they were able to sequence the complete genome for the first time ever. These results help researchers understand these large mammals better.
For example, data from the recovered blue whale, coupled with other samples both modern and historic — some going back almost 150 years — revealed that blue whales carry within them a small portion of fin whale DNA. The assumption is that, owing to the small number of male blue whales — there are fewer than four hundred blues on the western side of the North Atlantic, plus several thousand on the eastern side — male fins are breeding with female blues. The idea of crossbreeding between these two similar species is not new, but this DNA evidence proves that it is common enough to leave a genetic mark across the blue whale’s species.
What is coming next for this research project and the travelling exhibition?
The remains of the blue whales will continue to drive scientific discoveries while ongoing data from tagged blues helps provide information on whale population movements. For example, about cross breeding, further studies with larger sample sizes for present-day and historical blue whales from around the world should be conducted to better define populations and subspecies and examine gene flow to help plan global conservation efforts for this endangered species.
A large gap remains in our understanding of blue whale migrations, population ecology and interconnectivity, particularly across the North Atlantic. Knowledge of the distribution, genetic structure, and population ecology of blue whales is essential for the protection of this vulnerable species, as stated in the report1 recently published by a group of researchers which includes several members of the team who worked on our unique project.
As far as the exhibition is concerned, it is currently at Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, USA until January 5, 2025. ROM is thrilled to share that this exhibition is performing above visitor attendance projections!
It will continue to tour North America with several contract negotiations currently in the works.
Exhibition mentioned
To find out more about hosting this exhibition and to view a virtual tour of it, head to:
Out of the depths: the Blue Whale Story, by Royal Ontario Museum
For more FINtastic information about this exhibition please reach out Norma at nhenry@rom.on.ca.
About the authors & contributors
Teo is the global resource for the international touring exhibitions community. Created for hosts, producers and suppliers of international touring exhibitions, Teo is a global living resource for sharing best practices and fostering new international collaborations in the world of travelling exhibits.
Norma Henry
Norma, Manager Travelling Exhibitions at Royal Ontario Museum, has managed Travelling Exhibitions internationally for more than 20+ years. Logistics is her mantra and tackles every challenge as an opportunity to learn.
