Hope's Tale

The virtual "Life of the Blue Whale" exhibit by the UK's Natural History Museum gave an overview of the story of Hope, the female blue whale whose skeleton hangs from the ceiling of Hintze Hall (see what I did with the title? ;) ). The exhibit was broken into three parts: events in 1891, including the history of whaling and Hope's beaching and death; Hope's journey to the museum and various analyses conducted on her from 1892 to 2016; and her present condition as of 2017, along with a look to the future. 

From an educational perspective, the exhibit was quite effective in teaching me about the biology of blue whales, the tragic story of whaling, and modern conservation efforts. Blue whales can take in up to 457,000 calories in a single mouthful of krill, compared to the 2000 calories that human adults need per day. The Industrial Revolution and later technological developments led to the deaths of around 350,000 blue whales due to faster ships and new mechanical weapons like exploding harpoons. At present, the global whale population is slowly recovering from its precipitous drop down to 500, aided by the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on commercial whaling.

I would have liked to see a little more emphasis on the conservation, as there were only one section explicitly reminding the audience that the "Earth's rich biodiversity may be at risk, but it is within our power to protect it."

I feel that this online presentation may actually have been better in some ways than the in-person experience, though I would have to go there physically to confirm that. I think the compact, organized, and easily accessible arrangement of information on the Natural History Museum website was very helpful.