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
Additional links for John Ososky’s NCSU Center for Marine Sciences and Technology talk “Utilizing Smithsonian Cetacean Collections to Revise Taxonomy and Analyze Life History Traits” on February 28, 2025:
Only 50 Rice’s Whales Are Left. Can We Do Enough to Protect Them Before It’s Too Late? | Smithsonian
How an Eye-Popping Museum Specimen Boosted the Beleaguered Blue Whale | Smithsonian
How Whales Found Peace in War – bioGraphic
New killer whale species: Bigg’s and resident killer whales | NOAA Fisheries
(PDF) How to contend with paraphyly in the taxonomy of the delphinine cetaceans?
(PDF) Stenella clymene, a Rediscovered Tropical Dolphin of the Atlantic
Bottlenose Dolphins Along the East Coast Proposed to be a Different Species | NOAA Fisheries