Arroyos whale lives on, in upcoming display and in a new movie

| West Seattle news | Wildlife

Almost two years after a gray whale stranded and died off southwesternmost West Seattle, in The Arroyos (WSB coverage here), its legacy lives on in a multitude of ways. Here are updates on two. Above, Highline Community College‘s MaST Center is closer to displaying the whale’s skeleton; they hope to finish assembling it (a process that’s been under way in Tacoma) in time for a celebration in March. The recent photo of the assembly process was shared by Rus Higley from MaST.

Second – the Arroyos whale plays a bit part of sorts in a movie opening next month:

(Publicity photo, courtesy Universal Pictures)
“Big Miracle” is the new title for the Drew Barrymore movie about the effort in 1988 to rescue gray whales trapped in Arctic waters. The Los Angeles-based special-effects company that worked on the film, Rhythm and Hues, purchased high-resolution photos of the Arroyos whale from longtime WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli, using them, he explains,”as a source for their computer-generated whale textures.” So now you know, there’s a little bit of West Seattle in the movie that hits theaters February 3rd.

CSWS January 19, 2012 (10:52 pm)

Oh that is so great you posted about this-just last week a couple of us were talking about it. We took a group of children down to see it and I would love to follow up with them about what happened-now we can share this with them and maybe even go and see it again. Thanks for such diverse reporting WSB and always such good follow up on the stories that captivate us the most.

westseattledood January 19, 2012 (10:55 pm)

cool of hcc to preserve the specimen & congrats again christopher.

i wish i liked d. barrymore better, however, ws whale texture is ws whale texture, so i’ll keep an eye out for that too. ;)

Kayleigh January 20, 2012 (5:33 am)

The film looks awful (Drew Barrymore talking to computer-generated whales?) But glad that the skeleton and pictures are being used for good.

questionable January 20, 2012 (8:43 am)

It’s amazing that someone can come to such detailed conclusions about a movie just from looking at a single still image! They should hire you to work in the film industry Kayleigh, picking hits and tossing out the garbage just by looking at stills of single scenes- it would really save a lot of time and money that is currently wasted on bad movies. Good job!

Jack January 20, 2012 (9:07 am)

There is another West Seattle connection to this whale. The Executive Director of HCC’s MaST Center (who happens to be my wife) has lived in West Seattle for 10+ years.

Jet City January 20, 2012 (1:00 pm)

I second the kudos from CSWS: great job on the extensive coverage and thorough follow-ups, WSB! I look forward to seeing MaST’s skeleton display and to seeing how the CG whales turn out in the movie.

The 1988 story of the whales trapped by ice and the attempts to rescue them is also the basis of a children’s book, “Pipaluk and the Whales.”

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