Community effort brings whale skeleton to Wasilla

A 47-foot fin whale carcass that washed up near Anchorage last year will soon have a permanent home in the Mat-Su. After a four-month application process and wait, the nonprofit Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry in Wasilla was chosen in May to salvage the whale, which had been stuck in the mudflats near Earthquake Park since November.

James Grogan, the museum’s CEO, said the massive undertaking was completed with the help of a large group of local high school biology students, volunteers and donated equipment from local businesses, and funding from the Mat-Su Health Foundation. The March grant for $6,710 helped offset the expense permit fees, testing, and personal protective equipment for the students, who went to work under the guidance of biologists and a beached whale retrieval team.

“We wanted to get the kids out there ASAP,” he said. “The Health Foundation was an integral part of making that happen. The museum would not have been able to afford the process without the grant.”

The nonprofit Mat-Su Health Foundation has been investing in community health and wellness since its inception in 2007, when it became part owner of the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. Since that time, the Foundation has returned more than $138 million of its share of hospital profits to the community in the form of scholarships, sponsorships, and grants to other nonprofit organizations around the Valley. The fin whale project was not without challenges. A thaw in January, two months after the dead whale turned up, caused the carcass to rotate and sink further into the silty mud common to the area’s coastline. But the assembled team of students was game for the task of stripping off the skin and blubber to expose the bones that were to be removed. They got a nice assist from a big tide in June that moved the whale to shore and made accessing it easier. Grogan said some students were eager to have a close-up, hands-on experience. Others, put off by the smell, helped to keep knives sharpened and boots cleaned.

“The kids were great,” he said. “We had an amazing group that did a tremendous amount of work.”

Getting the skeleton out of the mud and water was only the beginning. From there, the bones were transported to the museum’s 20-acre plot near the airport and Menard Sports Center. They are currently buried in a pit and topped with horse manure, which aids in maceration, the process of fine-cleaning the bones and removing the tiny bits of remaining organic material from them. Grogan said he hopes that process will be complete by next summer. After that, the skeleton will be reassembled by a new group of biology students and hung on display as part of a growing portion of the museum devoted to natural and Native history.

“This is the most amazing project I’ve ever undertaken,” he said. “It will bring in more tourism, and the education portion of it is priceless. You can’t put a price tag on that.”

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www.museumofalaska.org