Innovative techniques aim for climate-safe restoration of Ms. Blue

Portions of Ms. Blue's skeleton on display at the Seymour Center. (photos by Carolyn Lagattuta)

Ms. Blue, the 87-foot-long blue whale skeleton, has proudly watched over the UC Santa Cruz Seymour Marine Discovery Center for decades, teaching visitors about her ocean home and inspiring interest in marine science. When parts of her had to be taken down to prevent a sudden collapse, the Santa Cruz community mourned the icon that has taught generations of students about their local environment.

Now, a new project is underway to give Ms. Blue another life, this time enabling her to teach the community about the power of climate-safe innovation. Jonathan Hicken, the Executive Director of the Seymour Center, is spearheading efforts to repair and remount Ms. Blue’s skeleton with climate-progressive techniques, foregoing traditional methods for repairing skeletons which use environmentally harmful materials and techniques. 

The interdisciplinary restoration effort includes Baskin Engineering faculty and students and local startups to repair some bone pieces and create 3-D replicas of others. Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Marco Rolandi and several of his students have created a bone-repair putty made from a shrimp-shell material to fill in cracks in some of the bones, while local company Swell Cycle is developing a method to 3-D print bones from recycled hospital trays. The project will likely take several years to complete, and donors interested in funding the project can contact the Seymour Center leadership team.

“Not only will people learn about blue whales and this incredible species, Ms. Blue will become a demonstration of climate-progressive technology, skills, and innovation,” Hicken said. “She will be an example of the engineering innovation that is needed to truly protect whales and their natural environment. She will become a celebration of climate solutions.”

A local legend

Jonathan
Seymour Center Director Jonathen Hicken observes damage to Ms Blue's skeleton from decades in Santa Cruz's coastal environment.

When Ms. Blue died of unknown causes and washed ashore on Pescadero Beach in 1979, a team of UC Santa Cruz faculty, students, and staff saved her bones, recognizing the opportunity to increase the public’s appreciation and understanding of the Monterey Bay and marine sciences.

The bones were mounted to a steel structure in 1985 at Long Marine Lab, part of the UC Santa Cruz Coastal Science Campus, and in 2000, were moved adjacent to the Seymour Center. However, all those years exposed to the wind, salt, and other harsh conditions of oceanside life led Ms. Blue’s metal structure to rust and deteriorate to an unsafe level, and left cracks and breaks in some of the bones. 

To prevent an unexpected collapse, the Seymour Center team made the difficult decision to take down some of Ms. Blue’s bones from her mounting in late 2023. Before disassembly, the team worked with Halon Entertainment – a Hollywood studio that did computer graphics for blockbusters like Star Wars, Avatar, Spiderman, and more – to conduct a 3D scan of Ms. Blue in an effort funded by donors.

The Seymour Center team knew they wanted to find a way to ensure Ms. Blue could continue her life as a local legend and educator.

But traditional best practices for restoration were highly niche, extremely pricey, and involved harmful plastics whose manufacturing techniques and materials threaten the very ocean ecosystem that Ms. Blue called home. 

Climate-safe solutions

Tapping into the wealth of creative minds at UC Santa Cruz, Hicken reached out to the Materials Science & Engineering program to collaborate on a climate-safe alternative. That’s how Rolandi, who is an expert in biomaterials for a variety of health, agriculture, and other applications, got involved.

“I love the ocean, and I think the Seymour Center is a great place – I bring my kids there! I really wanted to help out with this project,” Rolandi said.

In a project supported by the Dean of the Baskin School of Engineering Alexander Wolf’s Opportunity Fund, Rolandi and his research group have devised a climate-safe solution to fortify cracks in Ms. Blue’s bones. 

In Rolandi’s lab, Computer Science and Engineering student Ashwin Marichetty, Biomolecular Engineering student Rishima Agnihotri, and Rolandi lab alumni Alexie Barbee developed a bone-repair putty made of materials from the ocean. The team transformed chitosan — a substance found in crab and shrimp shells that’s a byproduct of the fishing industry — and calcium carbonate into a strong, lightweight putty that can fill in broken pieces of bone.

“It's so poetic because whales eat tiny shrimp, and that's how they grow their bones,” Hicken said. “To use chitosan to repair their bones is a full circle story.”

Over several months, the team iterated to find the perfect ratio of materials to best mimic bone texture and structure, working toward a pizza dough-like texture and testing baking the putty in an oven in Rolandi’s lab. Now, they’ve begun to apply the putty to cracks in the bone, exploring techniques for how to best repair different types of damage.

 

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Biomolecular Engineering student Rishima Agnihotri prepares the bone-repair putty in the Rolandi lab at Baskin Engineering (left), Professor Marco Rolandi and Computer Science and Engineering student Ashwin Marichetty apply the putty to a whale bone from Ms. Blue's skeleton.


Reflecting on the potential impact of their portion of the project, the researchers noted that few people around the world are working on climate-safe bone preservation.

“This is a niche thing, and a very big thing for the community because of how special the whale structure has been to a lot of people,” Agnihotri said. “This project will have a big impact, and that made me more excited to work on it.”

For the pieces of bones that need to be replaced, the Seymour team is working with Swell Cycle, a local company that mostly focuses on using recycled materials to 3D print surfboards. Swell Cycle is printing new bones based on the 3D scan using recycled hospital trays, actively diverting waste from local landfills. 

The restoration project will be ongoing as bones decay at different rates and the team works to get Ms. Blue ready to be remounted. Both the Rolandi and Swell Cycle teams are actively working on how to best optimize their innovations. 

Along the way, the team has been advised by the expertise of Frank Hadfield from Dinosaur Valley Studios, who conducted an initial bone and structural evaluation. Steve Davenport, who worked at the Long Marine Lab for 40 years and helped collect Ms. Blue’s bones in 1979, has provided deep historical knowledge to guide the project. 

Those interested in supporting their research or learning more should reach out to Jonathan Hicken at jahicken@ucsc.edu or Seymour Center Deputy Director Lauren Donnelly-Crocker at ldonnell@ucsc.edu.