Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Up in the Fijian village where Francis and Poasa live, there is a large shelter that houses a sperm whale skeleton. Some people have told me it is a baby one, but my mom looked it up online and based on the size it sounds like it was probably an adult female or a young male. A couple years ago, it was circling Mali for a while, then washed up on the beach, dead. No one knows what caused the whale to die, but I think it might be because it got separated from its pod. Poasa requested the bones so he could rebuild the skeleton, but he had to give the government the teeth because they are like money in Fiji.

They burned all the meat and blubber off to get the bones. Then they brought the bones to Vorovoro by boat. Poasa got help from a university in California and a few other places to learn how the bones fit together. Right now it is nearly completed. To give you an idea of the size of this skeleton, one of the smaller vertebrae from back by the tip of the tail is larger than my head. The length of the skeleton is 34 feet 4 inches, but of course it would be even larger with skin and blubber on it.

I can’t imagine seeing anything this large in the sea! If you come to Vorovoro, I will take you up to the village to see for yourself!