Catch and Collect, Preserve and Protect By Gavin Hanke, Curator, Vertebrate Zoology
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aws from our latest whale arrived during the last week of February, 2014. They came from the carcass of a Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) which died and later resurfaced underneath an aquaculture pen in Ross Passage, about 21 kilometres northwest of Tofino. I can imagine that the whale was a bit of a shock to the staff of the aquaculture facility. After the whale was towed to a beach and examined by researchers from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, we arranged to have its skeleton cleaned by Mike deRoos of Cetacea Contracting for the Royal BC Museum research collection. I think most people would understand the excitement about receiving a new whale skeleton, but this one is special. The Royal BC Museum has isolated leg bones of a Humpback, as well as foetal specimens in 2
What’s inSight
Summer 2014
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This diversity is the raw material which was filtered by evolution to produce the bewildering array of life as we know it.
alcohol, but this is our first complete Humpback Whale skeleton. This skeleton is a significant addition to the research collection because it is the first whale in many years. As you can imagine, there are many reasons a museum would not be able to receive something as large as a whale: 1) it is difficult to prepare something this large, 2) whales may wash up in remote areas, making recovery prohibitively expensive, and 3) whale carcasses sometimes are protected for cultural reasons. But if another Humpback turned up, I’d gladly acquire it for our research collection. The same goes for Killer Whales or Harbour Porpoises, even though we have several already.
Biological diversity is everywhere. Walk down the street. Look at your neighbours. Are they all the same? Are they the same age, height, weight, gender, race? Did they eat the same thing for breakfast? Are any diseased or showing signs of trauma? Some may have piercings, some have tattoos, some have both. Even identical twins differ. Look at any drawer in the Natural History collection and you’ll see organismal variation (but not piercings and tattoos).
People regularly ask me, “Why do you need another insert species name here?” The answer is simple – diversity. Diversity permeates all life – no two organisms are identical.
In biology, all specimens are unique, regardless of species. At a quick glance, all Threespine Sticklebacks look alike. Look closer and you will discover variation between