Blue whale skeleton at Long Marine Laboratory. Circa 1980.

University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library. Special Collections and Archives. Santa Cruz, California 95064

ms0259_neg_bk5_80_70_j

"Ms. Blue" is one of the largest blue whale skeletons displayed in the world and is one of four blue whale skeletons displayed in North America. The whale is 18 ft (5.5 m) tall and 87 ft (27 m) long, and was not fully grown when she washed ashore at Fiddlers Cove near Pescadero on September 6, 1979.[5] Shortly after discovery, biologists and students from UC Santa Cruz began "flensing" (removing flesh and blubber) from the whale, with the whole process taking about a month to complete. 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 decomposers to clean away the remaining tissue and oil that saturated the bones.

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