On the Cover

January / February 2006

Photo by Carl D. Walsh

Using expanding foam and sculptable epoxy, Chris Tremblay and Troy Thibodeau, working under the direction of University of Maine graduate student and cetacean expert Daniel DenDanto, reconstruct the pectoral flippers of a 46-foot sperm whale.

DenDanto, an authority on fin whales and a national expert on marine mammal skeletal articulation, cleaned, preserved and reconstructed the skeleton for display in the Nantucket Whaling Museum. Nantucket's sperm whale is in a diving posture that engages viewers, inviting them to examine the natural sculpture from every angle. "My hope is that people take more away about the life of the whale than about its death," DenDanto says.