What About Whales?

A humpback whale discovered on a beach in Long Island, NY was identified yesterday as Istar, a whale familiar not only to scientists, but to thousands of Maine families as the subject of What About Whales?, the exhibit currently featured at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine in Portland .

The exhibit includes a life-size model of Istar herself, including her unique tail markings, and an illustration of her family tree (a notable one – named for the goddess of fertility, she is believed to have had more calves than any other whale of her species in the region).

The Children’s Museum first commissioned the model of Istar (created by Maine artist George York) in 1999. The model traveled for years as part of the Museum’s educational outreach, and returned to the Museum’s Big Gallery in 2010 for the What About Whales? exhibit. Since the exhibit opened, Istar has been explored by tens of thousands of visitors and has gone to classrooms and communities throughout the state. The model has caught the eye of major museums outside of Maine as well: on May 19, the Istar model will visit the American Museum of Natural History in New York City for their Milstein Science Series.

The model of Istar will be open for exploration today at 12:30pm as part of the Museum & Theatre’s daily “Whale Time” program (public: free with admission; media welcome).