21 March – A tour of discovery and history along the Beagle Channel – Estancia Harberton
Written by Gaby
Our third day in the beautiful Tierra del Fuego took us on a trip away from Ushuaia along the scenic Pan-American highway to Estancia Haberton reserve and museum.
Once there we were briefed on the history of Haberton and it’s interesting founder Thomas Bridges by the lovely guide Camila.
A quick walk through the surrounding forest introduced us to the native tree species (a LOT of beech trees) and showed us the Yamana (native people’s) way of life.
En route to the museum we received some incredible news: a dead whale had been brought in! The opportunity to necropsy what was identified as a beaked whale (potentially a Gray’s) was an incredible experience. Seven avid marine mammal students and a dead whale- prepare for things to get interesting. A couple of us rolled up our sleeves and got our hands dirty (or bloody) to find out just how tough it is to remove whale muscle from bone. I can now say for myself that the answer is very!
Discovering the ovaries and feeling the trachea was a mind-blowing experience and from the look on Will’s face, my enthusiasm for poking a dead whale may have revealed far too much about my personality. As an aside: for anyone who has a dead whale lying around and is thinking of necropsying it in the near future, nose pegs and hand sanitiser are a must. From the smell, I’m still not sure whether we were lucky or not to have already eaten lunch.
Leaving the dead whale in the hands of the extremely capable volunteers, we proceeded to tour the Haberton museum with our guide Laura. As it houses a host of full marine mammal skeletons including over 900 Commerson’s dolphins and a full Pygmy right whale, this museum is utterly unique. The skilfully painted museum and it’s subjects gave a lasting impression of the scale and complexity of each species represented. My personal favourite display was the table of bone abnormalities. This included a series of specimens with intriguing disfigurements from genetically fused vertebrae to horribly re-set broken limbs. I’ve never been so grateful to the NHS for ensuring my broken arm didn’t end up in a similar state.
