| URL: http://www.theboneman.com Boneman Last Update: October 24, 2011 copyright 2005 by Lee Post illustrations by Lee post |
| site created by Merry Web Designs copyright 2005 |
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| The Boneman.com |
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| click on photos to inlarge |
| Meanwhile, on the home front--the local branch of the university (UAA) made a major score with hiring super professor, Debbie Tobin, who is big into marine biology and has been heavily involved in the local marine mammal stranding network. Besides documenting and helping on necropsies, she, with her students and local volunteers, have started collecting and preparing whale bones from a gray whale and a complete Bering Sea Beaked Whale skeleton. She and her students will articulate the Beaked Whale skeleton in a future local marine biology or cetacean class. I might even get to help . |
| When the whale is dead and stinky and bloated--and not even the volunteers want to get close--and you want to see inside it--and you need to do some gut-busting to relieve internal pressure. . .WHO YOU GONNA CALL? Professor Tobin of course. |
| This is another gray whale from a local beach. Debbie Tobin, volunteer magnet, collected a bunch of us, (including some visiting tourists who were in the right place at the wrong time) to retrieve some whale bones. |
| This is whale collecting Alaska style. Students-teachers-friends-volunteers, and yes, even some visiting tourists spent the day collecting the head, flipper scapula and some assorted bones. |
| The bones were buried in horse poop for one year in snow-country, with a blue tarp thrown over the top. Horse poop composting is state-of-the-art for cleaning big oily whale bones. |
| The bones were excavated--much like doing an archaeological dig. They were clean, oil-free, undamaged, and didn't even stink. The students washed the bones at the local car wash. The bones were then dried (inside a building) in preparation of being articulated for a display. |
| A 14-foot-long female Bering Sea Beaked Whale washed up across the Kachemak bay. After the Seward Sea Life Center finished the necropsy, Debbie and her students (I got to help too) collected the skeleton and covered it with horse poop in preparation of it being a skeleton articulation project next fall or winter. There is likely only two other skeletons of this species on display in the world, making this a very rare opportunity to work on a very little known whale. |
| click on photos to inlarge |