Blue Whale Heart Arrives at the ROM
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Press Release
Blue Whale Heart Arrives at the ROM
ROM original exhibition features first and only real preserved blue whale heart in the world
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is thrilled to announce the arrival of the blue whale heart – a cornerstone of the ROM original exhibition Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story. The blue whale heart is the largest of any animal on earth, and the ROM’s specimen, on display now, is the first and only real preserved blue whale heart in the world.
The heart arrived at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday, May 15, 2017 via Guben, Brandenburg, Germany, where it underwent plastination by colleagues at Geuben Plastinate GmbH. It was installed in the exhibition on Thursday, May 18, 2017 by experts from Research Casting International.
On display until September 4, 2017, Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story explores the story of the nine blue whales from the endangered North Atlantic population that became entrapped in thick ice and died in March 2014. Two of these whales later washed ashore at Trout River and Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador. In cooperation with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Research Casting International, the ROM travelled to the site to recover the skeletons, along with DNA samples and other important biological information. The results of that work form the centrepiece of this astonishing exhibition — a massive, fully articulated blue whale skeleton, at 80 feet, one of the largest, most complete displays of its kind in the world.
This exhibition is a collaborative project led by the ROM’s Dr. Mark Engstrom, Senior Curator and Deputy Director of Collections and Research, with colleagues Burton Lim, Assistant Curator of Mammalogy; Jacqueline Miller, Mammalogy Technician; Oliver Haddrath, Ornithology Technician; Dave Ireland, Managing Director of ROM Biodiversity; and Gerry De Iuliis, Lecturer in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto.
Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story is part of the ROM’s exhibition program to commemorate Canada and Ontario’s 150th anniversary.
More information on the exhibition is available at www.rom.on.ca/en/blue-whale
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Amanda Fruci, Communications Manager
416.586.5558, amandaf@rom.on.ca
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For tickets and 24-hour information in English and French, visit www.rom.on.ca or call 416.586.8000. For Membership enquiries, please call 416.586.5700.
