When a young fin whale washed ashore and froze near downtown Anchorage, it sparked a months-long mystery. A retired Air Force pilot, James Grogan, took on the monumental task of salvaging its bones for a museum, transforming a problem into a profound mission of preservation and reflection on humanity's role in the natural world.
The article begins by explaining 'whale falls,' a phenomenon where a whale's death creates a vibrant deep-sea ecosystem. It then lists various causes of whale deaths, including stranding, starvation, predation, bycatch, heatwaves, and increasingly, ship strikes, which kill an estimated 20,000 whales annually. The narrative shifts to a specific incident in November 2024, when a two-year-old fin whale washed ashore near downtown Anchorage, Alaska, and froze solid on the tidal flats. The extreme cold made a necropsy difficult, and no clear cause of death was found, nor was the whale's unusual inland location explained. Despite expectations, the 47-foot carcass remained frozen, becoming a local curiosity marked on Google Maps. As spring arrived, the thawing whale became a pungent problem for nearby residents. This is where James Grogan, a retired Air Force pilot and director of the struggling Museum of Alaska, entered the scene. Seeing an opportunity to revitalize his museum and give the whale 'a second life' as a teaching exhibit, Grogan embarked on an ambitious project to salvage its skeleton. Navigating the Marine Mammal Protection Act, he secured permissions from Native corporations and government agencies. The bone harvesting process in March was arduous, taking three weeks instead of the anticipated afternoon. Volunteers, including university and high school students, helped extract chunks of frozen flesh. Grogan, an outspoken conservative and 'anti-Darwinist,' found himself in philosophical debates with scientists about the whale's anatomy, particularly its vestigial pelvis bones, which he attributed to a 'great Creator' rather than evolution. The challenging conditions of the mudflats, which Grogan likened to quicksand, nearly led him to give up on retrieving the spine. However, a fortuitous high tide pushed the remaining carcass back to shore, allowing him and volunteers to finally extract the last bones using chainsaws and towing equipment. The salvaged bones were transported to Grogan's museum in Wasilla for maceration, where microbes would clean the remaining flesh. Grogan articulated his vision for the whale's place in the museum, connecting it to Alaska's history of 'oil' – from whale oil to crude oil – and advocating for responsible industry practices to protect whales. He reflected on how the project solidified his creationist beliefs, marveling at the whale's 'unbelievable complexity.' The experience transformed him from a 'let the world burn' individual into a 'conservative save-the-whales Greenpeace fanatic,' inspiring him to advocate for legislation protecting whales from ship strikes.
