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Ten-hour mission to excavate huge whale head in Cornwall

Years after its burial, a team at the University of Exeter excavated a two-tonne whale head in a ten-hour mission on the Penryn campus, led by Professor Robbie McDonald to study a 60-foot female fin whale.
After gaining formal permission, academics obtained Duchy of Cornwall approval and a Natural England licence to bury the whale head in prepared soil following a failed 2020 rescue by locals.
Using specialist equipment, the recovery team employed an industrial vacuum excavator operated by Paul White with Dave Hatton assisting, removing soil from a two-metre-deep hole while organisms stripped the skull clean except for one piece of blubber.
Discussions now focus on whether the skull will be permanently installed on the Penryn campus as a memorial, while researchers took baleen samples to study decomposition and support monitoring, resonating with the local community of Cornwall who tried to save the whale.
The dig comes as another fin whale stranded on Monday, following 20th-century whaling that killed about 750,000 fin whales, and Professor Robbie McDonald said `There is so much to be done to improve the state of the natural environment`.

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