- Hanging from the center ceiling
overseeing the visitors of the museum
is Phoenix the North Atlantic right whale,
the ambassador of the Sant Ocean Hall.
This life-sized model is 45 feet long, and 2300 pounds,
and is based on a real whale.
It took four years to create this precise model.
As we pan to Phoenix's face,
check out the large, bumpy protrusions on her head and jaw.
These are called callosities.
They are rough, keratinized patches of skin
unique to each North Atlantic right whale.
They're kind of like freckles on a human face.
Scientists can use these callosities to identify
individual whales in the wild when doing population surveys.
You might also notice as we zoom in on Phoenix's mouth
that it looks a little different than yours.
Rather than teeth, North Atlantic right whales
have long sheets of baleen that hang
from the top of their jaw.
The baleen is made of keratin,
the same material that makes up your hair and fingernails.
When the whale opens its mouth
and takes in a huge gulp of water,
the baleen plates act like a sieve.
Water passes through it,
and small organisms like copepods get stuck in the hairs.
The whale then uses its tongue
to lick off all of the tasty critters
and swallow them for lunch.
While it might seem unlikely,
the largest animals in the ocean,
baleen whales, eat some of the smallest,
zooplankton like copepods and krill.
In a single day,
a North Atlantic right whale might consume
up to 2600 pounds of food.
North Atlantic right whales have 225 baleen plates
on each side of their mouth,
the longest of which are about 8 feet long.
But now that we know
a little about North Atlantic right whales,
who was Phoenix, and why was she chosen
to be the star of the Sant Ocean Hall?
Phoenix was tracked from the time of her birth
off the coast of Georgia in 1987.
She is so named because in 1997,
she was able to escape
a life-threatening entanglement with fishing gear.
As we zoom in to view Phoenix's right lip,
you can see some white patches.
These represent scars that Phoenix
bears from this experience.
Like the rest of her species,
Phoenix spent her life migrating
seasonally along the east coast of the United States,
moving between calving grounds
off the coast of Georgia and Florida
and feeding grounds in the Bay of Fundy.
Phoenix gave birth to three calves
and is the grandmother of at least one whale.
Unfortunately, Phoenix was last spotted
by North Atlantic right whale researchers in 2013
and was declared presumed dead in 2019.
Today, Phoenix continues to serve as the ambassador
to the Sant Ocean Hall representing the stories
of hundreds of North Atlantic right whales
and other marine creatures
threatened by human impacts on the ocean.
Sadly, Phoenix's story is extremely common.
North Atlantic right whales were hunted to near extinction
during commercial whaling in the mid 20th century
when hunting of right whales was made illegal in 1935.
Right whales were considered the right whale to hunt
because they're slow swimmers found in coastal waters,
rest at the surface, and float when killed.
Today, North Atlantic right whale populations
continue to decline largely due to deaths
caused by entanglements with fishing gear and boat strikes.
In 2018, it was estimated that only 409
North Atlantic right whales remain in the wild.
While dedicated teams of scientists,
resource managers, government agencies,
and fishers are working together to address
the complex issues threatening North Atlantic right whales,
urgent, drastic action must be taken
if we want to save this species from extinction.
To learn more about what you can do
to help protect North Atlantic right whales,
visit the Ocean Portal at ocean.si.edu.