How many scientists does it take to weigh a whale? Carrie Straight 05.14.01 Unlike many smaller mammals, weighing and measuring whales and other marine mammals is quite a task. It is difficult for scientists to measure living whales and other marine mammals, so they find other sources of specimens to measure. Sometimes people find whales, dolphins, and porpoises dead on the beach or tangled in commercial fishing gear. Rather than just disposing of these dead animals, scientists have used them to discover more about these animals. A group of scientists collected different marine mammals and took them back to the lab for measurements. The researchers had to measure a few of the specimens in the field because they were too large to transport back to the laboratory. These measurements are a good addition of knowledge about these species. The measurements of the fluke (the lobes of a marine mammal’s tail) might tell researchers how these mammals swim. The relationship between the different measurements they took showed that all of these animals are built in roughly the same proportions, and that these proportions are what make them such great swimmers. Bose, Neil, Jon Lien, and Juha Ahia. 1990. Measurements of the bodies and flukes of several cetacean species. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Biological Sciences Series 242(1305): 163-173. ©2001 The Aurora Collection, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Site Development by: Interactive Multimedia. Inc.