The Skinny on That Skeleton
The bones of an enormous finback whale have been hanging out at the National Aquarium since 1981.
- Conservation
What is approximately 150 years old, weighs 5,000 pounds, and has been an important part of the National Aquarium since the day it opened on August 8, 1981?
The gigantic skeleton of a finback whale that hangs over what is now Blacktip Reef.
The skeleton, known as Omega, belonged to a whale estimated to have been born around 1870. Omega was 58 feet long and weighed about 50 tons in the spring of 1883 when it was caught by a whaler in the Atlantic Ocean off New England and towed to a small Cape Cod port for rendering. A finback of Omega's size would yield approximately eight barrels of oil. The rest of the body, including the whale's bones, was considered scrap.
Henry A. Ward—a collector who prepared skeletons, taxidermy and fossils for museums and educational institutions across the country—acquired the skeleton in 1884 and readied it for display. Omega was purchased by the state of New York and remained packed away in a basement at Rochester University until 1979 when it was transported to Baltimore, bound for the then-under-construction National Aquarium on permanent loan from the New York State Museum in Albany. Omega has been a can't-miss part of every National Aquarium visit ever since.
Finback Facts
Finback whales, also known as fin or razorback whales, are found all over the world, second in size only to the mighty blue whale. Full-grown finbacks can reach lengths of 80 feet and weigh 70 tons. Despite their immense size, they're known for their speed, able to swim 35 miles per hour.
Finback whale populations were severely depleted during the industrial whaling period of the early 20th century. They are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Despite the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on commercial whaling in place since the early 1980s, some countries continue to hunt finbacks. In addition to whaling, threats to finback whales include fishing gear entanglement, vessel strikes, noise pollution that interferes with their ability to communicate, habitat loss, pollution and climate change.
Learn more about the National Aquarium's conservation work and our efforts to protect wildlife and the places they live.