On June 19, 2017, a fresh dead adult female Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) carcass came ashore at Fort Macon State Park on Bogue Banks, North Carolina. Five years later after a 2-year burial, bone repairs, cleaning, sealing, and skeletal rearticulation, we are completing the skeletal display of that whale. View the photos below to learn about the process.
The following links expand on points about the Gulf of Mexico whale in John Ososky’s talk at the University of Florida Gainesville on 31 October 2024:
For more information about marine mammal stranding networks please visit https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/marine-mammal-health-and-stranding-response-program.
Whales on the Brink Symposium, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, November 2023
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQmxS2U3B6KaUPksTqmC2BLUPwXFEHnCN
100 Scientists Open Letter on the Gulf of Mexico whale to the Biden Administration
https://www.neaq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Scientist-statement.-GoM-whale.-Oct.-2022.pdf
Great Whale Conservancy – Economic Value of Living Whales
The Economic Value of Living Whales | GWC | Great Whale Conservancy
To learn about the Gulf of Mexico Rice’s whale, current status, methods of research, and threats to its existence please visit: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/rices-whale
How a Whale Skull at the Smithsonian Became a Beacon for Marine Mammal Conservation
Open letter regarding Cuvier’s whale and other whale common names
It’s time to rename Ziphius cavirostris the “goose-beaked whale” – CIMA Research Foundation (cimafoundation.org)
We Are All Whalers by The Hopeless Idiot (soundcloud.com)
https://soundcloud.com/thehopelessidiot/we-are-all-whalers
History of whale research and conservation at the Smithsonian video playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQmxS2U3B6KafwKbPd5qSunMSZjrmw908
NOAA Rice’s whale
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/rices-whale
Last Great American Whale by Lou Reed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oua4ysqIFlY
Gulf by Jack E. Davis
https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/jack-e-davis