A total of four sperm whales stranded on the North Sea coast in winter 1997/98.

Sperm Whale in Blue Light

It's a real eye-catcher, the blue-lit Sperm whale skeleton at the town wall below the St. Catherine Monastery. A highly visible sign and attractive piece of museum advertising. In addition, it is an indication that the German Oceanographic Museum is one of the key institutions for whale research in Germany. The one-sided skeleton section is a preparation from a stranded sperm whale, which, along with two other examples, came to Stralsund in 1997 and co-wrote a number of important chapters in the history of the museum. For the huge skeletons, for example, a newly developed, environmentally friendly method for the preparation of whalebones was used by the museum.

The skeleton had its place in a colossal display case for only for about two years now. Previously, the "half" sperm whale was the central exhibit in a five-year special exhibition in the Port of Stralsund. In the airdome erected between 2002 and 2006, at the time known as the "blue dome", German Oceanographic Museum and the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt DBU (German Federal Environmental Foundation) presented the "MeeresWelten" (Ocean World) exhibition. An interactive multimedia experience space related to the environment and the sea.

The exhibition was a first little foretaste of the large museum with aquariums of the northern oceans planned for the Port of Stralsund. With the "MeeresWelten" exhibition, the peninsula with little tourism was tested as a museum site. For this reason the "blue" whale was the precursor for the two companions stranded with it, the skeletons of which today draw the eyes of visitors in the schooling fish pool at the OZEANEUM and in the NAUTINEUM. The skeleton of a further Sperm whale was submitted to the National Park Multimar Wattforum Centre in Tönning and acts as an ambassador for whale taxidermy at Stralsund.