(Port Townsend Leader, ptleader.com)
1/27/2011 2:23:00 PM
Reconstructing the whale
Nine years later, an orca takes shape at science center
Science center volunteers (from left) Sue Long, Karen DeLorenzo and Linda Dacon measure a fin bone for drilling while visiting expert Lee Post looks on. Photo by Ross Anderson
"Homer [Alaska] is a lot like Port Townsend. It's a small town at the end of the road, where people are used to figuring out how to do things for themselves."
Lee Post
By Ross Anderson, Contributor
To fully appreciate nature's handiwork, or God's creation, just try replicating it.
Start with the pieces and assemble them into something resembling the original.
Down at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, volunteers have been at it for weeks, piecing together the skeleton of a 25-foot orca whale. At one table, a volunteer carefully brushes dust particles from crevices in a skull the size of a wheelbarrow.
Another measures and drills a 1/4-inch hole in a fin bone.
Another does the same with vertebrae 8 inches in diameter.
Gradually, their efforts are taking the shape of the noble creature, which will eventually hang from the ceiling of the local aquarium.
"This is the most exciting part of a very long project," said Libby Palmer, project manager for the science center.
Washed up at Dungeness
It's been nine years since orca CA189 washed up dead on Dungeness Spit near Sequim. Wildlife officials buried the carcass in a Sequim cow pasture, where it remained for six years. In 2008, it was dug up, the bones having been cleaned by years of bacterial action, and turned over to the marine science center on a long-term loan.
The bones have been identified, studied and carefully labeled. A team of technicians from Idaho spent several days photographing them in 3-D for a high-tech reference site. And now comes the reconstruction.
Soon the work-in-progress will be open to the public at an extended open house, Feb. 4, 5 and 6, and Feb. 11, 12 and 13 at the Natural History Exhibit at Fort Worden.
Meanwhile, the bone-building continues under the watchful tutelage of Lee Post, alias "The Boneman."
Post is a soft-spoken Alaskan who has spent much of his adult life reconstructing the skeletons of marine mammals and other northern wildlife. He's spending a month here overseeing the project.
Bone mechanic
His credentials?
By profession, Post is a bookseller and bicycle mechanic. If a Ph.D. exists for bone-building, he doesn't have it. Instead, he brings to the project 30 years of rare experience, 10 detailed guidebooks and a passion for Alaskan wildlife.
It started in 1979, when he was running his small bookstore and repairing bicycles in Homer, Alaska. He also volunteered at the local natural history museum, which asked if he would be interested in doing something with the bones of a beached whale.
Post researched the idea, but couldn't find much information. There were plenty of whale skeletons in museums around the world. "But most of them date to the 19th century, when there was a lot of interest in dinosaurs and whales," Post said. "And over time, they got dismantled and put into storage. There was nobody out there who knew how to do it."
Post was not discouraged.
"Homer is a lot like Port Townsend," he said. "It's a small town at the end of the road, where people are used to figuring out how to do things for themselves."
Power drill
By necessity, he used tools and materials readily available – a Black and Decker power drill, stainless screws, steel pipe and threaded rods from the local hardware store. When he needed to fill the gaps between vertebrae, he turned to local shipwrights, who showed him how to use clear, silicon caulk. "It's non-toxic, easy to work with and it lasts forever," he said.
When that project was finished, he constructed more – a bald eagle, a sea otter, a Stellar sea lion. At one point, he and other volunteers salvaged the carcass of a giant sperm whale from a remote beach, towed it back to Homer and worked with local high school students to reconstruct the skeleton.
Along the way, he kept records and drawings of his efforts and began writing manuals for future bone-builders. At first, he did them by hand, then on a computer. Now there are 10 of them, with detailed instructions on assembling creatures ranging from birds and small mammals to moose, wolves and various whale species.
"So now the world comes to me to ask about these things," he said with a certain level of amazement.
So it was that Libby Palmer and the PTMSC staff came looking for somebody to help reconstruct their orca. There has to be a book, she figured, so she checked out the city library. There she found copies of Post's manuals.
Remarkably, Post had recently visited a friend in the area and was willing to come back.
"The federal wildlife people were nervous at first," Post said. "But, when they saw my work, they relaxed."
Meanwhile, the bone-building profession has made a bit of a comeback. Post is in touch with others who work with museums around the world.
"We're all self-taught," he said. "It's ridiculous to suggest you need a Ph.D. to do this work."
What it takes, he said, is time, patience, volunteers and a passion for both the mystery and mechanics of the natural world.
"I'm fascinated by the mechanics. You learn so much about how different species live and move."
At the same time, Post is working with students and volunteers, training the next generation of amateur bone-builders who will be ready the next time something interesting washes up on a beach in the Strait of Juan de Fuca or Puget Sound.
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