Twenty-five scientists and volunteers clad in thick rubber pants and boots gathered at Agate Beach in Bolinas last Saturday morning, preparing to cut up the body of a 79-foot, stranded female blue whale to determine its cause of death.
“This is an amazing opportunity,” said Barbie Halaska, a research assistant at the Marine Mammal Center. “We rarely have the chance to examine blue whales, and she is in particularly good condition.”
By 6 p.m., the…