Narwhals are Cool

In an article on the BBC News site, called 'Arctic unicorns' in icy display, they have an awesome video that's just under two minutes long. Perhaps it's their streamlined body paired with their lengthy tusks, but there's just something about narwhals that is so awkwardly graceful. Or, rather, gracefully awkward? Whatever it is, they are absolutely fascinating.

What's even more awkward than a toothy tusk protruding from your top lip? Two toothy tusks, my friends. It's not a common occurance, that's for sure, but it has happened. I took the above photo about two years ago while visiting the Natural History Museum in London. I spent a too-short weekend visiting museums in London while completing an internship at Our Dynamic Earth, one of Scotland's leading science centers. Or, as they say, centres. This narwhal skull was one of the most fascinating things I saw that day.

10,000 Kitty Cats!?

The new Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History is an intense visual experience. They've done a lot to immerse visitors into the realm of oceanic wonder. The hall itself is rectangular with the entrance off the first floor rotunda. My first instinct was to look up; the ceiling spans two floors and there are many things to see above the floor exhibits.

The most eye-catching exhibit is Phoenix, a model of a resilient Northern Right Whale. At one point in her life, she was entangled by a mess of fishing line, but she made it out fine -- save for some scarring on her fluke and bottom lip. All these scars were visible on the model as well.

All through the hall, a graphic of Phoenix accompanied a word bubble with text pointing out a key fact about that exhibit. Often there would be a follow-up question to the visitor, or a humorous anecdote. For example, one of Phoenix's bubbles stated that an adult Northern Right Whale weights 140,000 pounds, which is equal to twelve African Elephants or 10,000 kitty cats!

Along with general species information, the biological exhibits had three main questions emblazoned on the cases:

1) Where does it live?
2) Is it big (or small)?
3) What is it related to?

It was easy to see the main education objectives of the exhibit developers.

One of my favorite exhibits was on vertebrates, and compared the largest -- Blue Whale -- with the smallest -- the Goby. To reach the weight of a Blue, one would need 155,000,000,000 gobies. That's a lot of gobies!

Tere tohora, tere tangata

Translated from Maori as, "Where whales journey, people follow."

This was the subtitle for the whale exhibition at the National Geographic Museum in Washington D.C. It was so artfully, skillfully, factually put together -- like walking into the pages of National Geographic, but much more interactive. The exhibition's acceptance of cultural traditions were wonderful and something that National Geographic has come to be known for.

The central exhibit was two sperm whale skeletons; one, a large male and the other a mature female with weakened bones. It was fascinating comparing the two to one another, side by side. Directly underneath the skeletons were some sort of black plexiglass and small lights. This created two wonderful effects that added a reflection of the skeletons from underneath, as well as producing dramatic shadows upon the ceiling.

In one corner of the room stood a small cave-like room. Once inside, I realized that the cave was shaped like the interior of a sperm whale's head. Towards the front was a screen that played a simulation video of a sperm whale diving for a squid, called "Search and Destroy." Like the rest of the exhibition, this film was exceptionally well done. It made no use of vocal narration and allowed visitors to focus on the whale's task.

A series of short films on "Whale People" were scattered around the perimeters of the room, spotlighting a few different people who study whales in New Zealand. Some were locals, others were foreign researchers who have come to love the country as well as the whales. Each video was a glimpse of the life of someone who lives in New Zealand and studies whales.

It's too bad I don't live nearer to D.C.; I would have enjoyed another visitor or two (or three!) to the Tohora exhibition. One day I'd like to go one better than an exhibit; one day I'd like to go to New Zealand and see for myself!

Whales on the East Coast

In less than 24 hours I'll be boarding a plane back to Seattle after spending a wonderful few days on the east coast, mostly in New York City and Washington DC.

After visiting a few museums -- American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and the National Geographic Museum -- I'm reminded of how important museological collections are to society. Seeing the Blue Whale in AMNH, the Northern Right Whale in the Smithsonian, and the Tohora exhibit at the NatGeo were all enlightening experiences. Not just for what I learned from the exhibitions themselves, but also from observing the interactions of fellow visitors, especially with regards to kids. Hearing parents interpret text panels, kids ooh and aah over the size of Big Blue, and seeing kids climb inside a model heart of a blue whale -- all of these interactions confirmed the important roles of collections and interpretation of collections to me. Even in the current Internet/TV age that we live in, it is becoming increasingly important to experience as much as we can in the flesh, instead of on the screen.

I'll be posting on each museum experience over the next few days. Keep your eyes peeled. =)