Oregon Coast's 70-Foot Blue Whale Skeleton Gets a Dedication Day, Special Newport Events

Published 07/13/26 at 7:55 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Newport, Oregon) – Last month came the remarkable installation of a giant whale skeleton in the central Oregon coast town of Newport. It's perhaps one of the largest displays of its kind in the world.

Now comes a celebration and dedication ceremony of Newport's latest attraction.

The big party for the completion of a 70-foot blue whale skeleton display at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center is set for July 16 in Newport, with two public events planned throughout the day.

The skeleton, just installed inside the Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building, is one of only five fully assembled blue whale skeletons on display in the United States.

The day begins at 11 a.m. with public viewing of the exhibit, followed at 11:30 a.m. by a program in the Carmen Ford Phillips Auditorium. Speakers include Frank Hadfield of Dinosaur Valley Studios, who developed the display concept; Lisa Ballance, director of OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute; and Bruce Mate, the institute’s founder, who launched the effort to preserve the whale after its discovery near Gold Beach in 2015.

From 12:30 to 1 p.m., marine acoustic researchers will demonstrate blue whale sounds near the exhibit, using specialized equipment capable of playing the animals’ extremely low-frequency calls at natural levels.

A separate research seminar runs from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., also in the Carmen Ford Phillips Auditorium. Marine Mammal Institute researchers Bruce Mate, Dawn Barlow and Kate Stafford will present current findings on blue whale behavior and ecology. An online viewing option is available for those unable to attend in person.

Blue whales, the largest animals ever known to exist, are endangered and rarely seen by the public because they spend most of their lives in deep ocean waters. Their bodies typically sink when they die, making opportunities to recover and preserve a skeleton extremely rare. OSU researchers and partners have spent the past decade preparing the specimen for display with support from donors and a Canadian firm specializing in large-scale preservation.

As part of the event, marine acoustic researchers plan to present blue whale sounds near the exhibit from 12:30 to 1 p.m., using specialized equipment capable of reproducing the animals' extremely low-frequency calls.

The researchers wrote the following about whale sounds. "Blue whales produce the loudest sustained calls of any animal on Earth. Their calls are also very low frequency - a key adaptation that allows sound to travel long distances through the ocean. Most of the energy in a blue whale’s call is below the threshold of human hearing, but it can be felt (as vibrations in your body) with the right speaker. Bob Dziak (NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Lab) and Kate Stafford (MMI Marine Mammal Bioacoustics & Ecology Lab) have the equipment and recorded sounds to allow us to play blue whale calls at their natural frequency."

More background information is available at https://beav.es/fYn

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