On October 30, 2023 a 10’ 9” young female Gervais’ beaked whale stranded alive on the beach of Emerald Isle, NC. A necropsy revealed an ingested balloon in the stomach that had blocked the GI tract. There was milk in the stomach, and no prey items. She was still nursing.
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.
Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are a familiar sight along the beaches and estuarine shores of Carteret County, NC. One of these individuals, “Cutty”, is well-known in our long-term study of local dolphins.
PBS North Carolina introduces Bonehenge Whale CenterAward-winning producer and reporter Frank Graff recently published an article about Bonehenge on the PBS North Carolina website. In his words, "It could be the coolest place you’ve never heard about."
In January, 2022, on a remote beach in Sinaloa, Mexico, artisanal fishers found a live-stranded 31’ neonate blue whale. It died on the beach. Keith Rittmaster of the Bonehenge Whale Center and the NC Maritime Museum was asked to lead a collaborative and diverse team...
Our most recent display installed in the Bonehenge Whale Center is the complete skeleton of an adult male Blainville’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) from a specimen that stranded on Ocracoke in February 2015. The steps involved in the bone preparation and...
Apparently, bottlenose dolphins enjoy batting jellyfish around. Keith Rittmaster captured some great shots of the action near Shackleford Banks and the News and Observer's Mitchell Willetts wrote an article about it in December 2020.
The interchangeable use of the terms “dolphin” and “porpoise” contributes to confusion regarding the occurrence and taxonomy of two distinct species. Dolphins and porpoises are marine mammals – warm-blooded, have lungs (air-breathing), have hair (visible when very...
There’s a newly named species of whale that you won’t find on any posters or in any books… yet. It’s Rice’s whale, endemic to US waters and highly endangered. The entire 37' skeleton of the specimen (adult male) representing this new species was brought to the...