Whitby whalebones belong in a museum
When I heard of the deteriorating whalebones in Whitby I thought the town could copy what natural history museums do to protect dinosaur bones, by encapsulating them in resin. That might enable the current whale bones to remain on the hill overlooking the harbour.
Sadly, exposure to continuous sunlight degrades even UV-resistant resins. A better solution therefore is to cast the whalebones in bronze or concrete and accept that the real ones must go to the Whitby Museum.
Whaling is, of course, an important part of Whitby’s amazing history but the key word is ‘history’. Would anyone wish to fill the streets with the stench of melting blubber, bubbling in trying pots, to commemorate Whitby’s past? I doubt it.
The world has long since moved on from killing whales for their blubber or to make corsets from their baleen. And rightly so. It was the mass slaughter of whales that brought them to the edge of extinction.
Thankfully, many whale populations are now increasing again. A bronze or concrete replica of the whale bone arch would preserve a great landmark photo opportunity without requiring bits of another dead whale. We can leave that to Captain Ahab.
C M Vassie
Blake Court
Wheldrake
York
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