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Pygmy Blue Whale

(Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda)
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Melville, the NT's Pygmy Blue Whale

In 1981, museum staff recovered the weathered and fragile bones of a 21.9 metre Pygmy Blue Whale that had washed up on the coast near Cape Hotham, northeast of Darwin. The MAGNT Pygmy Blue Whale is a valuable scientific record of this endangered species in the Northern Territory.

In 1991, a decade after the bones were recovered from Cape Hotham, MAGNT officially opened the display of this unique specimen in the Maritime Gallery. It was taken down in 1999 and significant work is currently under way to revitalise and reinstate the skeleton. 

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Follow the visual journey as we lead up to Melville's reinstallation in the coming months.

1981 | Cape Hotham

1991 | The First Installation