Public invited to beaked whale skeleton reconstruction at Fort Bragg’s Noyo Center

Noyo Center for Marine Science Operations Manager Lynne Sullivan holds a photo of a rare 16-foot beaked whale at the Noyo Center for Marine Sciences Field Station In Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, Calif., on Monday, Sept 15, 2025. The whale stranded and died on the Mendocino Coast at Jughandle State Natural Reserve in May 2022. (Mary Rose Kaczorowski via Bay City News)

FORT BRAGG, CA., 9/16/25 — The Noyo Center for Marine Science hosts a rare opportunity to witness science in action throughout the week.

(L-R) Noyo Center for Marine Science Executive Director Sheila Semans and local coastal resident Toni Rizzo survey the skeleton pieces of the Hubb’s Beaked Whale at the Noyo Center for Marine Sciences Field Station In Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, Calif., on Monday, Sept 15, 2025. (Mary Rose Kaczorowski via Bay City News)

From now through Saturday, the center’s staff, collections team, volunteers and science advisers, joined by marine mammal specialists from the California Academy of Sciences, will articulate a rare Hubb’s beaked whale. In May 2022, a female beaked whale washed ashore at Jughandle Beach just south of Fort Bragg. The Noyo Center Marine Mammal Response Team collected the skeleton, along with organ and tissue samples, and began the process of identifying the exact species. There are approximately 24 recognized living species of beaked whales, and the team did not know how rare this encounter would be.