Kodiak Daily Mirror Article from Thursday, August 19, 2004

Excavation of a species
Local residents dig up gray whale as part of a community project

By DREW HERMAN
Mirror Writer

Exhumation of a gray whale skeleton finished ahead of schedule Wednesday when volunteers on a Pasagshak beach prepared the massive skull for transport to Kodiak.

When the carcass washed ashore more than four years ago, local retired science teacher Stacy Studebaker acted quickly to organize preservation of the skeleton as a community project. Mike Anderson donated labor and equipment to inter the whale and allow the flesh to rot as a first step in the preservation process.

A test pit dug earlier this year showed decomposition had proceeded far enough to dig up the bones.

"Everything is out of the ground," Ken Hansen said. "We did find every bone, including the littlest."

Hansen, a fisheries enforcement agent with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, helped Studebaker get official authorization for the project.

Current plans call for cleaning and rearticulating the bones for public exhibition as the centerpiece of a proposed new Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge visitors center.

When the whale washed ashore in mid-2000, gray whales were listed as endangered and a mysterious die-off lasting about three years was affecting them. Since then the North Pacific population has somewhat recovered and species' status here has been upgraded to threatened.

"We Dig Whales" project organizers scheduled a week for the disinterment, but enthusiastic volunteer crews made short work of the recovery.
"It was exciting to be down with it happening," Hansen said.

The lower backbone came up Tuesday, and the thoracic and cervical sections followed on Wednesday, along with the ribs and skull. Each bone was individually tagged and packed in fish totes donated by Alaska Pacific Seafoods for transportation.

The skull, the largest and most delicate section, called for "the personal touch," Hansen said, estimating its weight at more than 400 pounds.
"We made a big wooden crate out of plywood and pallets out on the beach," he said.

The crate was taken into the pit where a team of volunteers carefully, wrapped the skull in landscape cloth and placed it inside.
Thanks to fine weather, the workers stayed dry and warm at the dig, but they did have to contend with the smell left by tons of rotted whale flesh.

"It wasn't as bad as I expected," Hansen said, but admitted, "We all gagged a few times."

Volunteer diggers wore protective disposable overalls supplied by USF&W. But the smell permeates everything and might not come out, so Hansen contemplates a ceremonial clothes burning to celebrate completion of this phase of the project.

The recovery of the bones provided data on an anatomical question of interest to scientists who wonder whether the gray whale's cervical vertebrae are fused together.

"In fact, none of them were fused," Hansen said.

Attention now moves to the long process of cleaning and rearticulating the 38-foot skeleton. Although similar in scale to the reconstruction of a large fossilized dinosaur, the gray whale remains require a different approach.

"It's not really been done before," Hansen said.

The bones are now at the NOAA facility at Gibson Cove, where they will remain for further cleaning, treatment and eventual reassembly. For the next significant step, whale skeleton expert Lee Post of Homer recommended burying them in horse manure for as much as a year to help remove the natural oils.

"That's sort of the state-of-the art technique to do the final cleanup," Hansen said.

The skeleton is legally property of NOAA, which will arrange for a permanent loan to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the planned display.

The project got its start when Studebaker spotted something in the ocean while kayaking with husband Mike Sirofchuck near Pasagshak.

"There's no rock there," Studebaker remarked.

Looking through binoculars they identified it as a dead whale, and then kept track as the tide carried it ashore to a section of state land accessible through private property. "It couldn't have landed in a better place," Studebaker said.

While she organized burial of the carcass as the first step in preservation,
Studebaker had no specific plan for the end product. A December 2003 conversation with Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge manager Leslie Kerr generated the idea of displaying the skeleton in a new visitors center. "What an opportunity for the refuge and the community," Kerr said.

Although KNWF jurisdiction ends at the mean high tide waterline, Kerr feels the marine mammal will make an appropriate display.
"When you live on an island you have to pay attention to the whole ecosystem," she said.

For one thing, beached whales help sustain Kodiak's famous landbased predators.

"It's a tremendously important source of food for bears," Kerr said.
A whale skeleton will also serve as a lesson in comparative anatomy.
"You look at a whale skeleton and the flipper bones are just so much like hands," Kerr said.

Gray whales are bottomfeeders, so Kerr and Studebaker hope to mount the skeleton in a natural pose, on its side with a curved back and fins spread.
Plans for a new visitors center were driven by need for a place to highlight the natural history of Kodiak and complement the area's other museums. A site selection committee has already forwarded recommendations to federal authorities.

"We're hoping for downtown," Kerr said.

Kerr envisions a two-story building with an observation deck in which the gray whale skeleton reigns as a dramatic centerpiece.