What's the Story in Tobermory?*

The story is that the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) on the Isle of Mull in Scotland is currently looking for volunteers to help with the preparation of a harbor porpoise skeleton to be used for school visits. If you have ever wanted to spend three weeks in Scotland and learn about cetacean anatomy, this is a great opportunity.

According to the HWDT site, this project would involve:
-Handling bones
-Removing dead tissue
-Soaking bones in liquid and household chemicals (such as laundry powder)
-Drying out the bones
-Numbering, cataloguing and assembling the skeleton

The Isle of Mull is one of the western islands of Scotland, and is the second largest in the Inner Hebrides. I spent a snowy two days on Mull two years ago while on an internship in Edinburgh. Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull, is home to about 700 people, a whisky distillery, and a very colorful waterfront (see above). Oh, and there's some great cheese coming out of Mull as well, which you may be able to find at your local supermarket. (For example, New Seasons on NE 33rd Street in Portland, Oregon carries it from time to time.)

If this sounds like your cup of tea -- and Scotland has some great tea -- you should think about applying. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I want to skip on over to Scotland for a bit. I'll bet they're looking for someone sooner than I could be available though, so I'm putting it out there for you. What are you waiting for?!

*The title of this post comes from a children's show called Balamory, in which children sing, "What's the story in Balamory? Wouldn't you like to know!" Balamory is based on the burgh of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, which is apparent from the beginning of the show.

Whale Farming on NPR

NPR airs a few comments from listeners about a previously aired story regarding whale farming. Apparently, one of the "farmers," Mr. Summers, had been teaching the whales to sing in harmony. He says, "In achieving three-part harmony in whale song, I think we we have tied nature's most wondrous sound to a great barber shop tradition." A NPR listener, however, had this to say: "Having studied music at college, I want Mr. Summers to know that what he calls three-part harmony is not. Two of the whales are plainly singing the same note. That may be clever, but it's not barber shop." Well, Mr. Summers wasn't having any of that, and he replied, "It wasn't that the whales couldn't sing in harmony, they were just too busy expressing their individuality. They weren't so tied to the group."

Touché, Mr. Summers, touché.

All joking aside, BBC News published a story about the possibility of a whale farm off the coast of Japan. That was in 2002, though, and I haven't heard anything about it since.

A Trip to NOAA

Top of an orca skull viewed upside-down.

Last week, on a work-related trip, I got to see inside NOAA's National Marine Mammal Labs (NMML) in Seattle with resident researcher Jim Thomason as the wonderful tour guide.

The first areas Jim showed me were the tooth lab, scat lab (which smelled delicious), and collections of otoliths (fish ears) and cephalopod (octopus and squid) beaks from the scat of northern fur seals.

From there we went to the osteological collection and looked at a juvenile gray whale confiscated from a Hood Canal resident who didn't have permits. The next room was full of orca skulls, ribs as tall as Arvydas Sabonis -- who is 7'3" -- beaked whale skulls, and other cetacean miscellany. Many of the orca skulls were from the orcas captured in Puget Sound in the 1960s and 70s. Wow, there's some orca history to never forget.

Most of the shelves on the left held orca skulls.

Once I got over my fascination of the shelves of orca skulls, I saw a skull from one of my favorite whales -- a male strap toothed whale! These whales are so cool; the males have these two teeth -- almost two and a half inches in width -- that grow over their rostrum in old age, limiting the amount they can open their mouths. As a result, these whales have learned to use suction to get at their food.

Mandible of a strap-toothed whale.

On the other side of the collection we looked at skulls of polar bears, walrus, and crabeater seals -- which have these amazing plankton-sifting, prehistoric-looking teeth.

Wouldn't you love to have some teeth like these?

All in all it was a great trip to a place I never thought I would see. If you had told a 10-year-old me that I would one day see such a collection, I'm fairly certain I would have dropped dead on the spot. Jim was a fantastic tour guide, and I hope to be able to visit again.

Blue Whales Don't Play Games

But you can! National Geographic's new special, Kingdom of the Blue Whale, comes with several online interactive components. One of which is a game called Finding the Blue Whale, in which the player tags and tracks blue whales along their migration route. Another component is an in-depth exploration of these magnificent creatures. Compare the size and weight of a blue whale with other well known large objects, such as a space shuttle or the great T. Rex, discover the unique anatomical traits and behaviors, and learn about the threats facing blue whales. All in all, an extremely well done website for a deserving topic of study.

Hopefully the show will come out on DVD soon so that those without TV (i.e.; me and others out there) can check out this apparently awesome -- or so I've heard -- NatGeo special!