Out of the Depths Saturday

This weekend we once again made use of our ROM memberships, as we headed along to their brand new exhibit on blue whales.

A couple of years ago, during the May 24th weekend we had taken a trip with a few friends to the west coast of Newfoundland. Big news at the time was that a number of blue whales had been trapped in ice of the coast and had died. Two had washed up on nearby beaches, so we had decided to go and see one of the poor beasts and marvel at its size... and smell. The ROM also ended up paying the whales a visit, making the most of this rare occurrence by leading a project to rescue their bones, and a giant heart, for science. The whale that we saw will soon be on display in St. John's at Memorial University, but the other has since made its way all the way to Toronto, where it formed the centrepiece of this fascinating exhibit.

After smugly flashing our ROM membership cards and bypassing the heaving crowds at the ticket counter, we headed downstairs in the ROM to take in the exhibit. It began by recounting the tragic story of how 9 blue whales came to be trapped in ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and how two of those whales ended up on the shores of Newfoundland. It also gave us a rundown of the recovery effort, which had to happen very quickly over the course of two weeks while the whale carcasses were still in relatively good shape.

Why does Newfoundland look like it's so far North?

Emerging from this introduction, we were then confronted by the whale skeleton itself. We learned in the exhibit that blue whales are the largest animal that have ever lived (including dinosaurs), weighing up to 170 tonnes, and seeing the scale of the thing it was surprisingly easy to believe.

Blue Whale skeleton.

The rest of the exhibit delved into great depth (no pun intended) on topics such as whale communication, feeding, hunting and conservation. While they didn't have the giant heart of the blue whale on display, they did have a life size cutout and it was also pretty staggering. Alongside it was a big vat of fake blood, indicating the immense volume that one pump of the heart could shift. It made us realise the scientific importance the heart that they had collected in Newfoundland, as it is so rare to be able to acquire one for study.

There was also a section on the evolution of whales from four legged land mammals into the giant sea mammals that they are today. It featured the skeletons of various whale ancestors from throughout the ages, starting with a large dog-like creature with strong hind legs, and progressing through generations of mammals that spent an increasing amount of time in the water. The exhibit illustrated how the hind legs withered away as they became less important to survival, while a strong flat tail evolved for swimming.

One of the Blue Whale's dog-like ancestors.

All together, it was another great exhibition and it was very cool to have a bit of a personal connection to the story this time around. We definitely learned a lot too.

Here are a few more pictures of the exhibit:

This time last year we were also visiting a museum at the Ontario Science Centre, and two years ago we were gorging ourselves on sushi in St. John's.