A blue whale skull measuring 5.8 metres (19 ft) in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

TROUT RIVER, NL — You know how excited your kids and grandkids get at the museum when they see pre-historic dinosaur bones and the enormous bones of mammoth or whales?

Well, last month, a rare dead blue whale – considered to be the largest mammal on Earth, washed up near Trout River, NL. Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) scientists are hacking away at the 100-tonne-plus dead female whale; a stinky, expensive job they could not complete without the help of truckers. All for the love of science, in the pursuit of knowledge and for that ear-to-ear grin of a cute child.

The Northwest Atlantic blue whales are an endangered species; there might only be less than 250 of them left. They can grow to about 30 meters, the length of about two city buses and can weigh up to 180 tonnes. The whale on the west coast of Newfoundland is a mature female of 23 meters. While some of her tissues and internal organs are being sent back to Ontario for DNA and other tests, most of her flesh and blubber is being hauled by a dump truck to a landfill.

Her bones are also being carefully labeled and placed in an 18-wheeler, according to media reports.

The Ontario-bound tractor trailer will bring the whale’s bones and some tissue from Newfoundland to Trenton, ON where Research Casting International’s experts, specializing in museum displays will help prep the whale. ROM scientists will study the endangered mammal and are determined to assemble the skeleton and mount a whale exhibit, if funding holds.

Crews are trying to get the whale’s cranium or skull clean of all flesh and in one piece on the back of a truck.

Apparently, that’s how those majestic museum displays come to be and they wouldn’t be possible without the help of truckers, willing to roll up their sleeves for a huge, dirty, smelly, rotten job. And who are willing to give their trailer a serious hose down!