Zhangzhou Dongshan Mintai Folk Customs Museum: A large whale bone just collected

[Minnan Net]

On May 29, another group of tourists heard the news and came to the Dongshan Mintai Folk Customs Museum to visit a whale bone that had just been collected recently, only to see fish skulls, coccyx, vertebrae, ribs and other piles on the floor. "Unfortunately, the indoor venue of the Folklore Museum is too small, otherwise it can be connected into a relatively complete skeleton of a large whale." Lin Caiping, 75-year-old director of the Folklore Museum, said that the Zhangzhou Demonstration Comprehensive Practice Base opposite the Folklore Museum will soon be delivered for use, and specimens such as whisker whale bones of the Folklore Museum "Ocean World", which is a key project, will become a good classroom for students to learn and practice.

Lin Caiping introduces the bones of whales

It is reported that the bones of the whale were salvaged by a large trawling during a high-horsepower steel fishing boat in Tongling Town, Dongshan, while fishing in the southern part of the Taiwan Strait last September. At first, the fishermen felt that the generator was very difficult to pull the net, and thought that they had caught a large school of fish, but when they looked at the net, it was a large pile of whale bones, and they were stunned. After the fishing boats returned to port, the fishermen buried the whale bones as "good brothers" on a remote beach by the sea, according to the customs of the fishing area of Dongshan Island. Not long ago, the Dongshan Mintai Folk Customs Museum learned of this news, and after contacting the fishermen of the fishing boat several times, finally agreed to dig up whale bones for the folk customs museum to collect.

According to the preliminary identification of relevant experts of fujian fisheries research institute, the occipital bone hole behind the whale skull is flanked by the occipital condyle, which is connected to the first cervical vertebrae in the back, which is the characteristic of mammalian whales, which can confirm that this is a baleen whale. However, there are a total of 15 species of baleen whales in the world, of which 9 species are found in China, including black right whales, gray whales, fin whales, blue whales, and large-winged whales. The baleen whale bone could not identify the species for a while. It can be expected that this large whale has been dead at the bottom of the sea for more than 5 years, but the bones of the whole body have hardly been lost. There are more than 50 pairs of ribs in two rows, the longest is 2.2 meters, and the short one is also 0.5 meters; the whale vertebrae are more than 40 pieces, each 15-30 cm in diameter, 20 cm high, weighing 2 kg to 5 kg, the whole vertebrae are white, and the blood vessels in the bones are 2-3 cm in diameter. Looking at the bone network, it is estimated that this whale is more than 20 years old, the fresh fish weighs more than 50 tons, and the length is about 15 meters.

Lin Zhencai, deputy director of the Mintai Folk Customs Museum, who has studied marine animals, introduced that baleen whale species are listed as China's second-level key protected animals. In China, baleen whales are mostly found in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, South China Sea, including the southern and southwestern waters of Taiwan. (Xie Hanjie text/photo)