Four stuffed sharks and a sunfish

The huge sunfish hanging in the whale hall

Back in March this year Catherine, Zina, Marielle and Gordon had arrived in Bergen and together with Christina and the others at Bergen Musuem the whale team was all finally together. We quickly got to know each other over many cups of coffee and pieces of cake and started to plan the work that would need to be carried on the whale skeletons.

So, first things first, we needed to reach the skeletons hanging high up above the musuem floor.

It was quickly decided that scaffolding and platforms should set up around the skeletons at almost ceiling height giving us access to every part of the whale skeletons. However as well as the whale skeletons the whale hall contains two whale skulls, one of a Bottlenosed whale and one of a sperm whale and some very unique examples of large, stuffed shark skins and a huge stuffed sunfish. Before there would be room to put the scaffolding up around the whale skeletons these would first have to be moved.

The sharks in the whale hall positioned under the hanging whale skeletons.

These skins are very interesting as they are examples of musuem taxidermy that is now very rarely seen. Today it is much more common to make casts and models of large marine animals as this method of preserving and stuffing skins is much more difficult. Because of their age they are very fragile and it was important that they were not damaged in the moving process.

The 'stuffed' basking shark skin - a beautiful example of a rare taxidermy technique

We set about gathering together all the fit young (and some not so young) men and women we could find wandering the corridors of the musuem offices. Then, after much padding, wrapping and cushioning and a lot of help and some very useful ideas from Umberto and Thor we lifted and moved 3 of the sharks and the bottlenosed whale skull out of the hall. Together with their stands they were unbelievably heavy!

The sunfish,basking whale and sperm whale skull were just too big and fragile to risk moving so they were carefully wrapped by Marielle ready for the arrival of the scaffolders.....

The now clear floor of the whale hall ready for the scaffolding to be put up.