Life Is Better On Vacation: Museum(TTC)

Sunday, 20 August 2017

The Blue Whale at the ROM

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 100 Queens Park
Date: July 2017
Website: www.rom.on.ca

Did you know the blue whale is the largest animal on earth? It is and during August 2017 the Royal Ontario Museum is running a blue whale exhibit. Back in 2014 there were nine blue whales that became trapped in ice and died. Two of these whales washed up on the shores of Newfoundland. Scientists quickly jumped at the rare opportunity to closely examine these mammals. The exhibit at the ROM is a direct result of this work.

A team of scientists had the difficult and smelly job of taking the whale apart in order to preserve the 80 foot long skeleton. The exhibit included a watch from one of the scientists that will never smell clean again. After 2 years the bones were finally ready to be on display in Toronto.

Nothing about a blue whale is small. It weighs 90,000 kg which is the same as 15 elephants. Elephants are the heaviest land mammal.

Blue equals 1200 humans or 1437 of a particular human.

In terms of humans it would take 1200 to equal the weight of the blue whale. That was quite a few more than the amount of people crowding the exhibit hall with us.

The heart of the whale had been plastinated and was on display. It was almost the same size as the car parked across from it. This is the first and only blue whale heart to ever be preserved. A human heart usually beats somewhere between 60 to 100 bpm. A blue whale heart beats at a rate of 10 to 30 bpm even when the whale is active.

Whales eat a small crustacean called krill and can eat up to 40 million krill per day. Krill eat plankton. Plankton eats some of the nutrients found in whale feces. Plankton can also perform photosynthesis which removes carbon dioxide from the air. This cycle makes the planet better for all of us.

Blue whale feces, like the orange stain above is large enough to be seen from an aircraft.

Blue whales eat krill by using the baleen in their mouths. They do not have teeth. A blue whale takes a giant mouthful of water. It then pushes the water out through the baleen. Krill is trapped inside its mouth as it can not pass through the baleen filters. Dinner is served.

The first whale is believed to be derived from Pakicetus (above). The fossil above shows the Pakicetus and eventually it would evolve into the whales that we see swimming in the oceans of today.

People used to hunt whales to make whale bone products like those pictured above. More needs to be done to protect these endangered animals. The blue whale at the ROM is here to help educate and amaze us. Scientists are working hard to make sure that we do not see the last blue whale in our lifetime. We hope to see our very first blue whale when we visit the Saguenay River in Quebec later this year.

This location is near Museum subway. Visit other Toronto TTC stations.

Map of Our World

Royal Ontario Museum

Post # 186

Saturday, 10 December 2016

Chihuly

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 100 Queens Park
Date: Nov 2016
Website: www.chihuly.com

We attended a Friday Night Live event at the Royal Ontario Museum. This is where the museum stays open late and there are drinks and food and DJs while you browse the exhibits. We were lucky enough that a special exhibit called Chihuly was running when we visited.

The exhibit is named after Dale Chihuly who is known for his colourful glass creations.

The first two works created by Chihuly and his team featured boats. The first was full of giant coloured marbles and the second contained what looked like blue and purple flowers.

The next huge display was like a jungle of swirling and twisted glass.

Another piece seemed very familiar. It consisted of glass in the shape of flowers sitting on top of a clear glass ceiling.

The reason the colourful flowers seemed so familiar is that they reminded us of the Bellagio hotel lobby in Las Vegas (pictured above). The ceiling there is covered with a work of art called "Fiori di Como". It was created by none other than Dale Chihuly.

Chihuly was thrown through the windshield of a car in a 1976 accident which left him injured and blind in one eye. Since then he has relied on his team to help create these beautiful glass works of art. We paused to think that the very thing Chihuly loved to create with was what took away his vision and caused him harm.

There were many coloured bowls and pieces created to look like icicles or giant spikes.

Some neon blue tubes looked like sparks of light.

We made our way through a walkway covered by giant curved flowers in fall colours of yellow and orange.

The last part of the exhibit showed aboriginal art and blankets. We enjoyed the displays and marvelled at how Chihuly and his team had managed to coax glass into all manner of colours and shapes. The Chihuly event runs at the Royal Ontario Museum until January 8, 2017.