We've been making great progress in the whale hall and we've finished cleaning Benny the right whale!

It's been a great leraning process cleaning our first whale as we've had the oppertunity to experiment with different techniques. We've constantly modified cleaning solutions and tools to work out what works best on the many different bones. In some places thick black oil needed tackling and in others deeply ingrained dust in fragile exposed trabecular boned needed removing. We've experimented with everything from sand-blasting equipment and laser cleaning to potato powder, soapy water and solvents. The tooth brush and sponge have become our tools of choice and we have now refined the techniques to effectively remove dirt from both robust and fragile bone.

We can't believe the difference claening has made to the skeleton - it looks great!

The next step is to start cleaning the Sei whale - named Fin. We will begin by vacuuming off the loose dust and then start wet cleaning. For very oily parts of the skeleton we use ammonia to degrease but for non oily areas we use detergent in water, rinsed with alcohol to remove any remaining surface water or residue. It's not a fast process but using tooth brushes to reach into small areas and sponges for larger areas is providing an effective yet gentle method