The theory is that the right whale was so named by early hunters because it was the “right whale to hunt,” the proper whale for their purposes.
That’s because the lumbering sea mammals are slow swimmers, tend to stick to coastal areas and float when dead, making it easier to harvest their substantial stores of blubber from which oil was made. “The thick layer of fat on a right whale can produce as much as 7,000 gallons of oil,” according to a pamphlet on the creature produced by the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI).
I had to opportunity the other day to view the skeleton of a right whale, and it was an impressive sight. The whale hangs in the PRI’s Museum of the Earth — known as MOTE — outside Ithaca. It is one of several prized exhibits there.
Right whales average 35 to 55 feet in length and can weigh more than 100 tons. The massive bone infrastructure of the whale at MOTE brings home just how large these mammals are.
Eubalaena glacialis is the scientific name for the North Atlantic right whale, whose range extends all the way to Florida.
Though it has been protected since the 1930s, the right whale is the most endangered of all the great whales today, according to the American Cetacean Society.
Though now protected from hunters in our part of the world, the right whales still fall prey to humans indirectly.
The whale at MOTE — which became known as #2030 — was observed off the coast of Massachusetts in May 1999. “Multiple strands of fishing rope were wrapped three times around its body, causing a wound that cut seven inches into the blubber,” according to PRI’s account.
They lost track of #2030 until early September 1999 when she was again sighted, this time off the coast of Nova Scotia in the Bay of Fundy where baleen whales feed. (Baleen whales have baleens — plates made of fingernail-like material — in place of teeth. They swim with their mouths open, and their food intake is filtered through the plates and trapped. They live on krill and copapods, among other things.)
Two of the three ropes encircling the whale were successfully removed. Scientists attached buoys with VHF and satellite transmitters to the remaining rope so they could track the whale.
After that, #2030 went south toward winter breeding waters. On Oct. 21, 1999, the body of an entangled right whale was discovered floating off the coast of northern New Jersey. The position of the entangling rope wrapped around its upper body and cutting deeply into the blubber made it clear this was #2030.
After the carcass was discovered, the National Marine Fisheries Service notified PRI os the availability of a right whale skeleton. Staff went to the U.S. Coast Guard station in Cape May where the whale had been towed ashore.
PRI staff, the National Marine Fisheries and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center were joined by volunteers in the messy process of “flensing” the whale. Using only hooks and long knives, they removed the heavy, oily flesh of #2030. It took them two days to flense the 44-foot-long whale.
The skeleton was then transported by flatbed truck to Ithaca where staff and volunteers unloaded the skeleton and buried it in a bed of horse manure so that the remaining flesh and oil would be removed naturally over a period of months.
Once that was done, the cleansed skeleton was mounted for display at the Museum of the Earth where you can see it today.
For more information on the Museum of the Earth, which is affiliated with Cornell University, click here.
Irv Dean is the Gazette’s city editor. E-mail him at dean@dailygazette.com.
