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photo by Donald Kinney
It must have been quite a curiosity, but the air undoubtedly got a bit stinky in 1988 after a Blue Whale died and washed up on the beach at San Francisco's Fort Funston.
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photo by Donald Kinney
This was a great opportunity to study the bones of this massive creature, so it was decided to bury the decaying carcass right where it was, 10 feet underground for 10 years so insects and microbes could pick it clean.
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photo by Donald Kinney
So in 1999 the cleaned-up bones were dug up and brought to Rodeo Beach, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Today the bones serve as a teaching aid for the thousands of Bay Area school children who each year are bussed to Rodeo Beach to learn about marine biology. The skeleton goes largely undiscovered by most others who visit this popular beach--it is somewhat hidden behind the old Army barracks here at Fort Cronkhite.
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photo by Donald Kinney
This fibrous material is Baleen from the sides of the mouth of this whale, used to filter exceedingly tiny Krill from the ocean dinner plate.
The baleen system works when a whale opens its mouth underwater and then water pours into the whale's mouth. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and remain as food source for the whale. Baleen is similar to bristles and is made of keratin, the same substance found in human fingernails and hair. source: Wikipedia
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