UBC blue whale exhibit welcomes first visitors; Canada’s two blue whale exhibits "meet" via live webcast

Event:
The first of a series of five summer public previews of the blue whale exhibit at UBC’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum, in celebration of International Day of Biological Diversity

Date/time:
10-11:30 a.m., Saturday, May 22, 2010.
Please arrive by 9:45am

Locations:
Beaty Biodiversity Centre atrium
2212 Main Mall, UBC Vancouver

NB: Media are encouraged to park at Health Sciences Parkade and enter from East Mall and BioSciences Road. For a map, visit: http://maps.ubc.ca?314

Assignment/Photo Editors: Photo opportunities include:

– The first public visitors encounter Canada’s largest blue whale skeleton.
– Live webcam feed and ‘whale call’ to symbolize the ‘meeting’ of Canada’s blue whale exhibits (at UBC and in Ottawa at the Canadian Museum of Nature’s new Water Gallery).
– Interview and photo opportunities with blue whale project leader, Beaty museum director and representative from the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Media are invited to document the first public preview of the blue whale exhibit at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, in advance of the museum’s public opening this fall.

The UBC exhibit, the largest in Canada, is also the largest skeleton in the world to be suspended without external support and the most accurately assembled in the world.

In celebration of International Day of Biological Diversity, the UBC whale will “meet” the only other Canadian blue whale exhibit in Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of Nature by live webcam.

Please contact Brian Lin at 604.822.2234 or 604.818.5685 (cell).

Contact

Brian Lin
UBC Public Affairs
Tel: 604.822.2234
Cell: 604.818.5685
E-mail: brian.lin@ubc.ca