Blue Whale Skeleton at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at
Long Marine Laboratory

Arching 87 feet in length and rising 18 feet above the ground, the blue whale
skeleton at the Seymour Center is a sight to behold. The skeleton, dubbed “Ms.
Blue” by center volunteers, has a colorful history at Long Marine Lab. She was
first assembled in 1985 and has been a centerpiece of the lab’s education
program ever since. Prior to that, Ms. Blue’s life and death are an enigma.

For reasons still unknown, a dead blue whale washed
ashore at Fiddlers Cove near Pescadero on September 6,
1979. After several days of jurisdictional uncertainty,
biologists and students from UC Santa Cruz began the
long and fragrant task of “fleeing,” removing the blubber
and flesh from the whale. The process took nearly a
month.

Transported by helicopter and truck to the marine lab, the skeleton lay in a
grassy field just downwind of lab buildings for over a year before being buried.
Burying allowed nature’s decompose to clean away the remaining tissue and
oil that saturated the bones. In the summer of
1985, the bones were unearthed and
reconstruction began.