| In October of 2010, I took a "bus man's holiday" type vacation to a wonderful little nature reserve, just south of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, called El Refugio de Potosi. The staff of this reserve had collected the skeleton out of a rotting, large male sperm whale that was being battered against the local coastline, in May of 2009. The skull was broken, some ribs were missing and the small bones in the flippers were mostly gone, but otherwise it was a fairly complete skeleton, most of 60-feet long. I got involved with the story when I received an email from the director, Laurel Patrick, asking what they could do to save the bones. |
| URL: http://www.theboneman.com Boneman Last Update: January 18, 2011 copyright 2005 by Lee Post illustrations by Lee post |
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| This is the main compound, visitors area at El Refugio de Potosi |
| Laurel Patrick is the director of this non-profit nature refuge. |
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| While I was there I introduced the staff to the fun of articulating a skeleton. We worked on a dolphin and a crocodile skeleton. |
| Normally the problem with whale bones is trying to figure out how to get them clean and oil-free. There are many whale skeletons in museums that are still dripping whale oil even after 100 years or more. Last summer I looked at humpback whale bones in Alaska, that even after nine years of being macerated, weathered, boiled and composted, still had bones that were oil saturated. So, I was a little incredulous to hear that the El Refugio de Potosi's sperm whale bones were dry and starting to degrade after less than eighteen months of being in the elements. It turned out that is exactly what the condition of these bones was. The heat, the rain and the humidity evidently had leached the oils from the bones and they were dry and starting to deteriorate. We tried several local products on the bone, looking for something that might consolidate and keep the bones from deteriorating any further. We decided that a local acrylic-based cement sealer acted like the most promising product to preserve the bones. This is probably the only sperm whale skeleton in Mexico. It is likely as large as any sperm whale skeleton on display in the world. The staff of this little non-profit nature refuge is doing all they can to preserve these bones. They hope to display the bones as a full, outdoors exhibit, sperm whale skeleton. They are working with a budget that is pennies to the dollar of such a project if it were done in the United States. There are all kinds of difficulties in trying to get money or materials for their project. To learn more about this nature refuge or to follow the progress they are making on their sperm whale skeleton, their website is http://www.elrefugiodepotosi.org/ If you can help out, I'm sure they would be very appreciative. |
| The sperm whale bones as I first saw them. |
