We store these whales, in what they call a module, which was 20 feet across and 30 feet deep, and the lights were all turned out. Blackfish, 2013
Probably led to, what I think is, the psychosis. ibid.
All whales in captivity are all psychologically traumatized, it’s not just Tilikum. ibid.
If you were in a bath tub for twenty-five years, don’t you think you’d get a little psychotic? ibid.
London’s Natural History Museum is one of the world’s most prestigious institutions. Since it opened in 1881, over 600 million visitors have passed through its doors. It’s a spectacular monument to Earth’s biodiversity. And since 1979 a dinosaur, Dippy the diplodocus, has welcomed everyone as they enter the main hall. He’s one of the museum’s most adored attractions. But in 2015 the museum took the controversial decision to call time on Dippy. It announced that the hall was going to be given a new star attraction, one that has been here gathering dust for over a hundred years – the skeleton of a huge blue whale. Horizon: Dippy and the Whale, BBC 2017
1934: It took 20 men 6 months to hang the whale. ibid.
Blue whales can weight up to 200 tons and measure up to 30 metres in length. ibid.
1659, Massachusetts: The farmers would soon discover a new source of artificial light … within the body of a whale … The prize was the whale’s blubber … to bring a brand-new type of light to the world. How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson s1e4: Light, BBC 2018
Southern right whales: nearly 18 meters long, they are among the largest animals to have ever lived. Australia: Earth’s Magical Kingdom II, BBC 2019
In the heart of London is an incredible world: the Natural History Museum. Home to 80 million sensations of nature, from dinosaurs to whales, to giant squid to billion-year-old rocks. Now, our cameras have been allowed behind the scenes to meet the team keeping it up and running, welcoming up to five million visitors a year and bringing its unrivalled treasures to life. Natural History Museum: World of Wonder s1e1, Channel 5 2021
The Natural History Museum holds the greatest natural history collection in the world. Thousands of visitors flood through its doors every day to see everything from dinosaurs to ducks, sea monsters to giant sloths, and the star attraction that draws the biggest crowd is Hope – a giant skeleton of the largest mammal on Earth, the blue whale. Every visitor to the Museum will pass under this four and half ton, twenty-five-metre-long skeleton. ibid.
When you’re 134 years old like Hope your skeleton is fragile so needs to be kept under constant watch. ibid.
Water’s buoyancy helps support nature’s heavyweights. Which is why this is the domain of the most enormous animal ever to have existed: the 150-ton blue whale outdoes even the biggest dinosaurs for size. Natural World: Nature’s Biggest Beasts, BBC 2022
A humpback whale is 500 times bigger than a human, so could a whale have eaten Sean? … A humpback hasn’t got any teeth. Natural World: Humpback Whales: A Detective Story, BBC 2022
We don’t know how long they live. We don’t know how many there are. We don’t know what their beautiful songs are for. ibid.