Event: UBC’s blue whale skeleton leaves Victoria for its permanent home at UBC
Date/time: Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Victoria:
8:00 am: Skeleton to arrive at Swartz Bay ferry terminal
Vancouver:
11:30 am: Skeleton to arrive at UBC.
Unloading of first section will take approximately 45 minutes
Locations:
Victoria:
BC Ferries’ Swartz Bay terminal
Vancouver:
Beaty Biodiversity Centre atrium, 2212 Main Mall, UBC Vancouver
NB: Main Mall will be closed to traffic between Agronomy and University Blvd. Media are encouraged to park at Health Sciences Parkade and enter from East Mall and Hospital Lane. For a map, visit: http://www.tinyurl.com/ydtq3g3
Assignment/Photo Editors: TV/Photo opportunities include:
- Canada’s largest blue whale skeleton will take the 9am ferry from Victoria to Vancouver.
- The skeleton will arrive at UBC in five assembled sections on two flatbed trucks.
- A section of the skeleton will be unloaded by crane (this will take approximately 45 minutes).
- Skeleton articulator, project leader and museum director will be available for interviews.
————————————————————————————————————————–
Twenty-three years after it washed up on the coast of Prince Edward Island, the skeleton of a 25-metre blue whale will embark on its final journey at sea tomorrow before arriving at its permanent home as the centerpiece of the UBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum.
The skeleton, the largest in Canada, will also be the largest skeleton in the world to be suspended without external support. It will be displayed in a glass atrium in the species’ signature lunge feeding pose.
The skeleton has been undergoing degreasing, cleaning and assembly in Victoria, on facilities donated by Ellice Recycle Ltd. Twelve public open-workshop tours were held over the past two years.
Transportation for the blue whale skeleton’s final journal is supported by Van Kam Freightways Ltd. and BC Ferries.
Installation of the blue whale skeleton in the UBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum atrium will take approximately one month.
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is scheduled to commence its school and public programming, including guided tours of select collections, laboratories and exhibits this fall. A celebration of the International Day of Biological Diversity, including public viewing of the whale exhibit, will be held by the Museum on May 22, 2010.
For more information on the Blue Whale Project, visit www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2010/04/01/a-whale-of-an-exhibit/.
For more information about the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, visit www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca.
NB: To cover the embarkation of the skeleton onto BC Ferries’ vessel, please contact Deborah Marshall at 250.978.1267.
To cover the arrival of the skeleton at UBC, please contact Lorraine Chan at 604.822.2644.
-30-