A Sick Sea Turtle

By Baylee Browning
Collections & Exhibits Associate

A taxidermy Hawksbill Sea Turtle. Over the summer our education team noticed that the beak was falling off! These things can happen, this taxidermy is at least fifty five years old!

Hello, my name is Baylee. I am the Collections and Exhibits Associate here at the Whaling Museum. Museums are stewards of our collective history, and many of our stories are shared through artifacts in exhibits and educational programming. My job is to take care of all of the old stuff in the museum because I want them to last for a very long time. Did you know that only a very small percentage of our collections and archives are on display?!  We have a lot of objects in our collection, from whaling tools to works of art. We only have one taxidermy, have you seen it? This is a Hawksbill Turtle. Hawksbill Turtles are a tropical species with a distinctive hooked beak especially designed to help them eat their favorite snack, sea sponges! This species was put on the ESA endangered species list in 1970 because they were hunted for their beautiful shells.

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