Blue Whale Skeleton - Santa Cruz, California
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member DougK
N 36° 56.955 W 122° 03.920
10S E 583219 N 4089650
This 87 foot Blue Whale skeleton is located at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center in Santa Cruz, California.
Waymark Code: WM6V8D
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 07/22/2009
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member saopaulo1
Views: 11

This whale once swam along the Pacific coast. Blue whales are regular visitors to Monterey Bay, sometimes coming thousands of miles just for the food. These grand animals eat tiny shrimplike creatures called krill. Krill form dense swarms here in spring and summer.

On September 6, 1979, after a lifetime of long-distance swimming and krill-hunting, this 87 foot female blue washed ashore at Pescadero, about 30 miles north of here. Scientists at the Long Marine Lab decided to salvage the skeleton. They carved off the flesh and dismantled the skeleton. A helicopter lifted the heavy skull onto the back of a truck for transport to Santa Cruz. Smaller bones were hand carried up the bluff.

Back at LML, staff unloaded the bones of the blue and reassembled it as you see it today. Some of the whales 176 bones are missing, either lost to the waves or taken by souvenir hunters. Those missing bones have been replaced by cast replicas.

The Seymour Marine Discovery Center is operated by the Institute of Marine Sciences of the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC).

Website: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
Please provide another photo of the location. You don't have to be in there shot, but you can. The photo requirement is to discourage any armchair visiting.
Search for...
Geocaching.com Google Map
Google Maps
MapQuest
Bing Maps
Nearest Waymarks
Nearest Satellite Imagery Oddities
Nearest Geocaches
Create a scavenger hunt using this waymark as the center point
Recent Visits/Logs:
Date Logged Log  
hotshoe visited Blue Whale Skeleton - Santa Cruz, California 09/02/2010 hotshoe visited it
look_as visited Blue Whale Skeleton - Santa Cruz, California 08/05/2010 look_as visited it

View all visits/logs