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For Bay Area scientists and educators, the 80-foot, adult female blue whale that washed up on Bolinas Beach after being hit by a ship at the end of May continues to be of great interest. Fourteen institutions—four educational organizations and 10 scientific projects—have already received parts of the whale’s body. The Bolinas School and the downtown park may end up with some of its bones, once they obtain permits from NOAA. Above, the mandible, the lower part of the whales jaw.    David Briggs

Rising out of the sand, the bones of the blue whale on Agate Beach are still layered with ribbed flesh, flaky and graying in some places, thick and greasy in others. Its putrid smell is all but forgotten, and even the remaining, scattered gulls seem apathetic. 

But for the scientists and educators of the larger Bay . . .

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