Kodiak Daily Mirror Article from Thursday, November 2, 2006

Gray Whale Skeleton Being Reassembled

KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - The 165 bones of a California gray whale are slowing being reassembled for a new Kodiak museum set to open next year. Conservationist Stacy Studebaker, photographer Hank Pennington and expert bone restorer Lee Post of Homer were busy Tuesday working on the whale bones with volunteers.

The whale's journey has been a long one. The 38-foot animal washed up on a beach more than five years ago in Pasagshak on Kodiak Island's northeast side.

Studebaker spotted the drifting dead whale while kayaking in the ocean near Pasagshak Beach with husband Mike Sirofchuck in May 2000.

When it beached, Studebaker saw an opportunity. After teaching biology for 20 years in Kodiak, she said, "This could be the ultimate science project."

No one knows why the male whale died. The whale was estimated to be just 7 to 10 years old and gray whales can live to be 80 to 100. It had no outside physical damage.

Studebaker put together a team organized as the Kodiak Gray Whale Project that would eventually number more than 125 people.

How to preserve the whale was the first obstacle. Left on the beach, the carcass could have been torn apart by the island's famous bears.

The group received a grant from the Alaska Conservation Foundation for $60,000. Studebaker and organizers decided to dig a 40-foot long trench about 10 feet deep with the help of a backhoe provided by Pasagshak resident Mike Anderson.

The whale stayed underground for four years. When it was dug up, it was virtually free of tons of blubber and intact for preservation.

The bones were hauled in truckloads to the National Marine Fishery Service for cleaning and storage and then taken to the Kodiak Fisheries Science Center.

For the past few days, Studebaker and Post have been working 10-12 hour days on rearticulation - putting the skeleton back together. They expect the last phase of the project to take about six months.

They hope to finish in time for the opening next fall of the new Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.

Studebaker and Post this week were busy working on the individual bones, sanding, filling bone nicks and cracks with putty, and rearticulating the many bones of the huge, 7-foot long flippers.

The whale bones, surprisingly light to pick up, were stretched along the floor of the science center and on top of tables and shelves. They're being fitted together with steel rods.

"It's sort of a steel skeleton within a skeleton," Post said.

Post has been a trailblazer when it comes to whale restoration. Post has restored sea lions, a turtle, reindeer and several whales, including one hanging in the science center foyer.

When he started, Post found little documentation on how to restore a whale.

"There was no book on this, no authorities to tell us how to do it," Post said. Eventually, he found a person in Canada who helped.

Post is completing the last of a 10-part series of books on restoration and travels across the state helping students in other restoration projects.

"It has only been in the last 10 years that we have finally found good techniques for preserving the bones of decomposing large whales that wash up on beaches," Post said. "Burying is one technique, and composting the whale in a pit with manure is even faster and more preferable, if you can find enough horse manure."

At one time, gray whales were near extinction. There are an estimated 20,000 grays in oceans today.

Information from: Kodiak Daily Mirror, http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com (Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)